I fell in a video game
by Cerby
Summary: How a freakish accident led to the adventure of a lifetime... Now to see if I can make it home. SI; and it's not a crappy one I swear.
1. I'm in a game!

_Once again, hello out there! I expect everybody wants to stab me now ("It's another clichéd selfinsertion! SHE MUST DIEEEE!") and quite frankly I wouldn't blame you ..; _

_I fell in a video game is one of those few things that ate away at my brain until I just had to write it out, and then my friend thought it was good, so now it's posted here ; Funny how life works, isn't it… I haven't played Tales in a while since I started writing this, so events may be changed and/or out of order. I may omit small side quests without knowing it (I may even not be aware of them) so if you see something I missed that I'm not already aware of, please tell me. I like to keep these things in mind. _

_Before you all start freaking and wondering what OC pairings will be popping up around here, relax and take a breath. If you don't like such things you shouldn't read them, you know –nodnod- However, since I stink at most romantic things there shouldn't be anything in here that isn't canon. Yay. Do you all feel better now? _

_If things get too Mary-Sue-ish, I'll need a slap. Deliver a nice hard one, would you? Thanks. _

_Disclaimer: I don't own Tales or the characters. Poor me ;.;

* * *

_

...Life is strange.

The weirdest thing I've ever done in my entire life happened to me not too long ago. I remember it all quite clearly (for an event like this, who wouldn't?).

It was my lucky day, Friday the 13th. Yes, I know people squeal at the mention of it, because the Devil is supposed to come and eat your soul or something on the 13th. (Or is that 6/6/06?) Either way, that's a load of hogwash.

Anyway, I was in my usual mode as a subterranean basement dweller, hiding in the depths of our moldy and smelly cellar playing video games. To be more specific, _Tales of Symphonia_. That game owns everyone's soul, no matter what they say. It is truly awesome.

Currently, I was playing it again for the- third?- time, and giving the hard path a whack. The other two times had been easy- go to Izoold, Palmacosta, the stupid ranch, back to Palmacosta again, off to Luin, Asgard, etc... The reason they call it the hard path is because you have to get in the Tower of Mana to kill Iubaris right after Triet, and he is _hard_. Damn horse.

Because I'd just been massacred in under ten seconds again by the Dark Horse of D00m, I was now hauling my entire party out onto the plains for some heavy-duty training. Apparently, over level 20 wouldn't be enough to smack down Iubaris, which now meant I would have to get up to level 30 and try again. As painstaking as the training process is (go into field, find monster, kill, repeat) it would be worth it for later, when I knew more sweet tech attacks to use against assholes like Mithos and Kvar (I wanted to learn Falcon Crest _reeeeeeally_ badly. Lloyd needed to level up faster, dammit!) To hit level 100 is my dream, and to pwn Kvar with Kratos would be my reality.

_Haaaa. I am such a pervy fangirl._

In the midst of my training regimen I heard a burst of thunder, and then the dripping sounds of rain. That was somewhat unusual, storms in summer? Things were normally pretty dry around here. Oh well, maybe it was heat lightning or something. Nature's own fireworks...

"Bah, more grasshoppers...why can't I find a Velocidragon or something to pound on?"

The lack of higher-level monsters to fight really starts to get on my nerves somedays.

About the time I found the Velocidragon I was looking for, the storm had really picked up. It sounded more like a cyclone or typhoon out there than a regular ol' thunderstorm...good thing I was already in the basement, heh heh.

Buttonmashing madly, I heard the thunder moments after the lightning. What felt like a tickling sensation spread through my body, and then there was the loudest **BOOM** I'd ever heard, followed by a momentary loss of vision...

...hmm, how very odd. What looked like a Velocidragon's fanged maw was coming right at my face...

...something hit me, and I got knocked out.

----------

"...Are you alright?"

_...say wha? I'm going to swear I got headbutted by a dragon and that Lloyd Irving is talking to me..._

"...ow." Blinking uneasily, it took a few minutes for me to regain my vision.

And when I did, I nearly fainted all over again.

"Professor Sage! She's waking up!" Lloyd called over his shoulder at someone, no doubt Raine. Holding the side of my head with one hand, I sat up and looked about. It took me a moment to realize that there was something wrong- or should I say, nothing wrong- with this picture- I was seeing 20-20, and my glasses were not on my face.

"...What happened to my glasses?"

Lloyd turned back around to face me upon hearing my voice. "Hey, you're awake! You...kind of had a cut on your head, so Raine healed you..."

"Oh." Now things made sense. Raine hadn't just healed my head...she'd gotten my faulty vision too! I would definitely have to give her a big hug for that...providing she didn't whack me with her staff first.

Amidst my musings, it took me a moment to realize that I was surrounded and being scrutinized by the rest of the gang, all of which were looking at me with various degrees of interest. Sitting up, I brushed grass and dirt off my clothes and then stumbled to my feet, nearly falling over in the process.

_Gee, guess my sense of balance hasn't come back yet..._

Fortunately for me, I nearly fell on Colette, who helped me back up with a grin. "Don't worry," she smiled cheerfully, "I do that _all_ the time."

_Yeah, I know. I saw you all those times in Iselia..._

"Umm...if you don't mind my asking...who _are_ you?"

Gazing at Lloyd (the asker of the question) and then the rest of the group thoughtfully, I decided to play a little prank. It would probably get me lynched or roasted by Genis, but the ensuing chaos would be priceless.

"Hmm... You all give me your names, and then I shall give you mine, Lloyd Irving."

Like I said. They were _soooo_ gonna roast me for this.

_...oh gee, did Genis learn Eruption yet? I don't think so...great, all that leaves is Genis and Kratos' Fire Ball..._

"How do you know my name!" Lloyd sputtered, clearly taken aback by the fact that I knew him, _and_ stole his trademark quote in the process. Oho. Looking around the group of now worried and semiangry people, I knew that it would take a while before everything came clean.

"Er...maybe we should make camp, I'll tell you all then..."

----------

As night came and we all sat around the fire brooding, I was once more prompted to tell my story, this time by Colette and Genis.

And of course, Lloyd got excited and butted in and dragged Raine and Kratos down with him...

"So? Spill! Tell us who you are, where you're from, and how you know our names!" Genis urged, hopping about the fire impatiently. I watched with a sweatdrop forming, and trying not to laugh.

"Yeah, c'mon! Don't keep us waiting all night, or we'll force you to eat Raine's cooking." Lloyd added evilly, and was promptly slapped by the Professor. "Ow!"

"...ew. No thank you." I grimaced, and rubbed my face tiredly. For the moment I reminded myself of Kratos, almost, but now wasn't the time to get nostalgic. "Hmm, where to start..."

"Try the beginning, and things may get easier." Kratos advised coolly, leaning back against Noishe with his sword in his lap. I stared at both of them for a moment, resisting a _very_ strong fangirlish urge to run over there and hug him to death. But no, that wouldn't be wise, he would probably slice my head off long before I got to him...

...or I could immobilize him with tomatoes and then hug him...

_No! Bad self! No threatening the health of the hottest guy in Sylvarant! _Picking up a nearby stick, I whacked myself in the head with it (not too hard, I didn't want to _seriously_ hurt myself), and then became aware of curiously embarrassed stares in my direction.

"...what are you doing?" Genis asked, clearly confused. Throwing the stick away, I laughed weakly.

"Umm...nothing! Just trying to refresh my memory..."

Stares.

_Okay, they don't believe me. Crap._

"Anyway...moving on..." I cleared my throat and gave my ponytail an absent tug, readying myself to tell a confusing tale. "I suppose you all want my name first..."

"YES! FINALLY! WHAT IS IT?" Lloyd jumped right in my face with glee, and I nearly fell over.

_Cute guy overdose! HELPME!_

"Lloyd, give her some breathing room." I heard Raine remark from the background, and Lloyd withdrew from my personal space. Whew. Thank Martel.

"Right...name. My name is Emily." I sighed, a little scared at giving away my name. Of course, they were never going to pry my last name out of me... I was going to take that to the _grave_.

...of course, Kratos or Genis could always _cast_ Grave and end my very short life. That in itself was not a pleasant thought.

"So, _that's_ your name...nice." Lloyd grinned, flopping back into his former spot next to Colette. "So, how did you teleport like that?"

My turn to stare. "...teleport?"

"I _think_ what he means is, 'Why did you sudden appear in the middle of a battle and scare us all to death?" Raine elaborated. "After all, you did just...appear on the field out of thin air."

"It wasn't thin air, Professor. She came out of a lightning bolt, remember?" Lloyd prompted, turning his head to give me a curious glance. I, myself, was a little clueless.

_Lightning bolt? Why would I...!_ _The storm!_

"Of course," I breathed, excitedly. "It was the _thunderstorm_! It must have zapped the GameCube or something and...digitized...me..." My train of thought slowed as I realized the consequences of my statement. If I had been digitized, then, I might truly be _in the game_... How would I get home!

Even worse, what would my parents do when they found me missing?

_One scorched GameCube, fried disk, melted memory card, and no anime-loving daughter... Oh, sheezus. They're going to have simultaneous heart attacks._

"Um...what's a GameCube?" The sound of Lloyd's voice brought me back to the present setting, where all the members of the party were now staring at me like I was insane.

Of course, there always was the chance that I really _was_ insane, and all this was nothing but a very realistic dream brought on by high stress and sugar. However, I now considered that fact very unlikely.

"Well, a GameCube is..." _How the hell am I supposed to explain what a GameCube is to Lloyd!_ "Um, maybe I should finish explaining...or trying to explain...first, and then things might make sense..."

Lloyd opened his mouth to ask another question, but Raine smacked him and nodded to me. "Alright. Please continue."

"Okay. Hmm...well, I was at my house, sitting in the basement playing a kind of game called a video game. It's not something you can play physically, it's more of a visual thing which involves a screen, game console and controllers... Anyway, while I was playing, this storm started up, and I guess lightning zapped the game console or TV I was using, transporting me...here." I took a deep breath at the end of my explanation, slightly winded. By nature, I was not much of a talker.

"But how did you get here if you were sent into a game?" Lloyd asked, cocking his head and looking confused. Much to my surprise, Raine whacked him again.

"Idiot! We ARE the game!" she growled, putting away her staff with annoyance. I just stared, extremely surprised that Raine had understood my weak explanation and gotten everything together so fast. "Though I find it a little hard to believe that our fate is controlled by something other than destiny..."

"Some days, I feel the same way." I remarked tiredly, reaching up out of habit to adjust my glasses, and suddenly remembering that they _weren't there_. That would be my cue to thank Raine for lifting an eight-year curse for me.

"Oh, and by the way Professor...can I call you Professor?"- a nod from Raine- "Thanks for fixing my vision and all...I'm really glad my glasses are gone." She smiled, suddenly looking interested once more.

"Oh, I fixed your eyes too? I thought I was just doing that cut on your head from when that Velocidragon rammed you." Lloyd suddenly chuckled, causing everyone to look at him.

"Gee, it sure was bad luck you had to appear in front of one of those things, eh?" He snickered. "I mean, you should've seen the look on your face, it was like 'Holy crap, I'm going to get eaten! WHAM!'" We all just stared at Lloyd for a moment, and then Raine thwacked him with her staff for about the third time that night.

"Learn some manners, why don't you?" she admonished him over Lloyd's whining about how he was going to get an permanent lump from where people kept hitting him. "I'm sure it wasn't Emily's fault that she had to appear in front of a dragon..."

"Er...funny you should mention that..." I sweatdropped weakly. "Actually, since I couldn't get past the Light Seal, I hauled my entire party out onto the plains for training, and found a Velocidragon when the lightning hit..."

"So it _was_ your fault the whole time." Genis sighed, shaking his head. "I was wondering why we kept getting the sudden urges to go out and train."

"I'm sorry...I suppose..." I muttered, looking around sheepishly. "But I just couldn't beat Iubaris, and you all were leveling up so well...almost to level 30." Lloyd ducked away from Raine and asked another question.

"Is that strong for the 'game'?"

"Compared to the guys later on, it's incredibly strong." I replied, unable to keep back a grin. "You'll be able to wipe the floor with them in about two seconds flat." Lloyd grinned back, excited.

"Cool! In that case, I forgive you for making us fight monsters endlessly!"

I sighed, relieved. _Woo, one down. Now I just have to hope that the others don't hate my guts._

"Since you know so much about us, does this mean you know where the other seals are?"

Colette had been so abnormally quiet the whole time I'd almost forgotten about her.

"Yep, I know where all the seals are...and all the Human Ranches." I gave an evil grin. "Blowing those things up is mighty fun, let me tell you..."

"Even better! Now we can find the seals faster, _and_ defeat the Desians along the way too!" Lloyd exclaimed, jumping up in a little mock dance of victory around the campfire. I watched, remotely amused, remembering all the skits I'd had during the game like this. Within twelve hours, it would be a sure bet that Lloyd's enthusiam would ebb away, and then he'd do nothing but whine.

I pitied Kratos and his angelic hearing. I really did.

"...so, what do we do now?" That was Genis.

"We go to sleep, obviously. It's been a long day, and we need to be rested if we want to fight Iubaris-that is his name, right?" I nodded. "-defeat Iubaris and release the Seal of Light." Good ol' matter-of-fact Raine stepped in and solved almost all my problems. Judging from the reactions of the people around me, they weren't going to keep me under guard or anything, meaning they trusted me.

_The characters from _Tales of Symphonia_ trust me?_

I couldn't keep back a smile.

----------

Despite the comfy blankets and such that the gang had, I was unable to fall asleep. I didn't know if it had to do with my insomnia, nervousness at being away from home, or the fact that I just can't sleep very well on the ground, but it was driving me nuts. Sitting up, I looked around at the sleeping forms of everyone else. The fire was dying, so I got up and poked it with a stick a few times, and then realized that Kratos wasn't there. Knowing full well that he wouldn't be doing any of his usual betraying activities until Colette released all the seals, I became slightly worried.

_Where is he? And where is Noishe? Isn't Kratos supposed to be the night watch? It seems like he's always the night watch..._

My brainwave struck me head-on as I realized the hidden meaning in my words. _He's always the night watch. Of course._

"Kratos is an angel, fool." I muttered softly to myself, looking about the campsite. "He can't sleep." Or could he? I'd never really asked.

Well, there might be no better time than now to find out...

Sneaking off from the campsite, I went a few feet before my rational side kicked in and noted that I had no idea where the heck Kratos was.

_Well_, I reasoned, _he can't be far because he has to watch the camp. Sooo...what could Kratos be doing that he has to leave camp in the first place?_

Frustrated, I picked up a small rock and bounced it in my hand a couple times before throwing it over a small hill. I was rewarded with the sound of an "ow" and a whine.

_Yay, Kratos!_

I scrambled over the hill and was met by two rows of teeth and a sword tip pressed to my throat. That was very pleasant.

"Icomeinpeacepleasedon'tkillme," I whimpered, leaning back against the hill in an attempt to escape the pointy tip of the sword. "I didn't mean to hit you with the rock..."

Kratos' steely gaze bore a hole through my intestines for a moment, before the angry light faded from his eyes and he withdrew his sword. "I can see that. I am sorry for frightening you."

"Oh, that's alright...it was totally my fault, I shouldn't have snuck up on you..."

"Indeed." Kratos muttered, even though I _knew_ he'd heard me coming. Angel hearing is very acute.

Noishe came over to me and whined, shoving his moist nose right into my face and snuffling me. "Noishe! Stop it! That tickles." I giggled, pushing away the silver-and-green protozoan with one hand whilst wiping his snot off my face with the other. Dismayed at his rejection, Noishe padded over to Kratos and licked his hand, seeking solace. Kratos absently patted him on the head and sat down on the ground, staring up at the sky.

I watched them for a moment before also turning my head to look up at the inky black sky, and gasped. Watching stars in Sylvarant is very different from Earth- for one, the sky is much clearer, and the stars are also much brighter. Amazed at the brilliant display in the heavens, I flopped back against the hill and let my eyes rove around the sky for a bit, searching for constellations that I knew. However, I couldn't seem to find anything that looked familiar...

"What _are_ you, exactly?"

"...say wha?" I blinked to clear my eyes of stars and looked over at Kratos, who hadn't moved from his spot a few feet away. However, his hand was on his sword, and he appeared tense. "What do you mean, 'What am I?'"

"...You have very strange mana." Kratos muttered, giving me a sideways glance. "It seems human, but there is also a peculiar tinge to it that is neither human nor elf, nor angel. It feels like a Summon Spirit, almost..."

"Summon Spirit?" _Holy fudge_. "Maybe it's the energy left over from the lightning that brought me here?"

"Mm. Perhaps. In that case, it should go away shortly." Kratos seemed to relax slightly, possibly from his determining that I was not a threat. However, harmless as I looked, I wondered if I should screw around with his brain a bit. Just a bit. Besides, I had to tell him that I knew he was an angel and all that, or he might kill me if he found out and thought I might tell the others.

And I wanted to live to see the Tower of Salvation, at least...

"Say, Kratos." A grunt. "Which Summon Spirit did I remind you of? Volt?" Kratos nearly fell over.

"How do you know about Volt?"

Damn, I was staring at the end of a sword again. Slowly raising my hands, I nearly laid flat on my back on the ground to escape the pointyness that was Kratos' sword. "Ah, well, that's a long story, continuing off the one I told at the campfire..."

"So continue." _Eek, pointy sword getting closer..._

"Ah well, remember when I said this was a game in my world?" A nod. "Well, here's the rub: I've already _beaten_ this game twice, so...I know pretty much everything."

"Everything? You mean about me?" Kratos looked surprised, and the tip of his sword retreated about an inch. I took that opportunity to sit up, but was forced to lay flat again when it came back.

_Guess this means I can't get up until I spill all, then..._

"You, Lloyd, Raine, Colette, _everybody_." I said, carefully trying to divert the sword tip from my face. "I know you're an angel that works for Cruxis and you're 4,000+ years old and that...Lloyd's your son." I whispered that part. I wasn't sure if Colette had reached the really-good-hearing-no-sleeping part of her transformation. "And I know the truth about Martel."

"Do you, now? A shame." Kratos' gaze hardened even further, I could see that clearly even in the darkness. "And just when I thought this journey could be done so much sooner..." His sword drew back, and it was then I _knew_ he was going to kill me.

"Kratos, don't. I'll yell for Lloyd, I swear I will."

"Go ahead. He sleeps like a log."

_Dammit. I don't want to die!_

As his sword came down, I did the only thing I could do at the moment- I rolled. Flipping over onto my side, the slice that was meant for my neck grazed my shoulder, ripping my favorite jacket in the process. I choked back a cry as I felt the blood trickle down my shoulder, but scrambled to my feet and ran. However, I only went a few feet before Kratos blocked my way.

"Kratos, stop! We don't have to do this." I panted, hyperventilating. "I promise I won't tell anyone! Really!" Kratos brought his sword up in a rather calculating manner.

"And how do I know that you're telling the truth?"

"Think, Kratos! What do I have to gain from all this anyway? I don't even like Colette! I could care less if she dies!" Wow, the nonsense that spewed from my mouth made no sense whatsoever, but if it prolonged my life I would be more than happy to keep rambling. "Besides, the world needs to be regenerated!"

_...that...was lame. He is SO going to kill me now... Martel, I hope you have room in heaven for me..._

Kratos froze for a moment, as if considering my words. It was in that moment that my life was spared, all thanks to Noishe.

Snarling, the silver-green protozoan bounded in front of me and snapped at Kratos, who was completely taken aback by this unusual turn of events. Knowing how the two felt about one another, I slumped to the ground and started muttering my thanks to every god and Summon Spirit I knew.

"Noishe..what are you doing? Move!" Noishe flicked his ears at Kratos' commands, but he didn't move and started whining instead. The Seraphim looked baffled. "Why are you acting like this? He doesn't usually warm up to strangers so fast..."

"He's a smart dog." I muttered, reaching up to grip Noishe's silky fur and using it to pull myself to my feet, before grabbing my injured arm with a curse.

_Gee, NOW I remember it's bleeding. What to do...can't really wake Raine up at a time like this..._

"Let me see it." There was a clinking sound as Kratos sheathed his sword, and stepped forward somewhat hesitantly. Naturally, inspired by the miniature Hell I'd just gone through, I hid behind Noishe and glared at Kratos over the top of his back.

"Leave me alone. You just tried to _kill_ me, remember?" I growled. "What makes you think I'm going to believe you'll help me?"

To my surprise, Kratos just stared, and then started to laugh. It was more like a chuckle, really, but for him that was a _big_ thing. I nearly fainted. _Damn this fangirl heart of mine._

"What's so funny?"

"...Nothing. You just remind me of someone." Kratos replied, returning to his former withdrawn self. "Now let me see that wound." I looked at him, then at my arm, and then at Noishe. _If my guess is good, then it's Anna he's remembering..._

"This better not result in my immediate dismemberment." I muttered to myself, before coming out from Noishe and allowing Kratos to see the sword wound he'd inflicted upon me. It only took a moment for him to do his stuff- First Aid is very useful and quick to respond- and then all that was left was a thin scar upon my arm.

"That should do it." Kratos sighed, then turned and went back to his previous spot, where he had been stargazing before all the fighting had taken place. I shook my head at his behavior, and then frowned at my jacket, which now had a very large rip in the sleeve. Come to think of it, the shirt underneath was damaged too.

"Dammit." I hissed. That had been my favorite jacket, an old Christmas present I'd had for years. Looking back, one could wonder at the purpose of wearing a heavy fleece in summer, but my basement reached temperatures rivaling Alaska in winter, hence the reason I'd been wearing it when I got zapped into the game. And now, it was toast...thanks to Kratos.

I looked over at him with thoughts of throwing tomatoes at him, and got a shock when I realized that he was also watching me out of the corner of his eye. Even so, it still took me a moment to determine that he really was _watching_ me, and not just randomly staring off into space.

_So, he _still_ doesn't trust me, eh?_ I shook my head at the stupidity of it all. Getting up, I turned and climbed up the hill to go back to the campsite, pausing a moment at the top.

"Kratos...while I may know a lot of things, I still don't know _everything_." I said, my back to him as I started down the hill into the camp for some sleep.

Kratos didn't look, but he heard, and he massaged his temples as he sighed, and Noishe whined.


	2. The Light Seal and Iubaris

_Well, that went over well. I'm just popping in to say that I won't be saying much from now on…probably silent until chapter nine (except for that retroactive disclaimer, you all should memorize it). _

_Some chapters are going to be shorter than others and may seem fillerish, that's because when I originally wrote this, it was all in block format and there were no chapters. I had to split it up, and..well…some parts don't divide as well as others. And I'm still going to confuse/forget events, please don't hurt me. Just try to enjoy! –squeaks- _

_Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia. I wish I did ;-;

* * *

_

The next morning dawned bright and far too early, in my opinion. As I lay there on the ground with my arms over my head, Lloyd, Genis, and Colette sat nearby and mercilessly poked me with sticks.

"Get up!"

_Poke._

A sleepy mumble. "...nnrgh..."

"Come on. Wake up!"

_Poke._

"Heehee, this is fun!" Stupid Colette.

_POKE._

"Aw, forget this. STONE BLAST!"

"...YEOW!" I was jolted up into the air by an explosion of pebbles and good-sized rocks right underneath my back, and only my blankets prevented several cuts and scrapes. Landing in a heap on the hard ground, I scrambled up and immediately started after the three stick-pokers, who would feel my _wrath_.

Meanwhile, as I chased the little hellspawns all over the place, Raine and Kratos proceeded to eat all our breakfast and look rather bored...

"Professor! Make her stop! She's gone mad!" Lloyd tried to summon Raine to his aid, but I tackled him into the ground...the result? An impromptu wrestling match, which ended with Lloyd sitting on me and aggravating all the bruises I'd no doubt gotten from Genis' Stone Blast earlier.

"Dammit Lloyd, get off me. What did you have for breakfast, cement?" I panted, feeling all my breath _whoosh_ out under the swordsman's weight. Shoving upwards in a futile attempt, I moved myself up about two centimeters, and then dropped back on the ground, totally spent.

_...curse that stupid gym class!_

"Hmmm? No...I didn't have anything for breakfast, actually." Lloyd said, his face suddenly lighting up. "Hey Professor! What's for breakfast?"

"Nothing. We ate it all already." Raine grinned, rather sadistically. "And I suggest you get off Emily now before you crush her..."

"Too late." I wheezed as Lloyd got off me and I was able to push myself onto one knee, holding my chest. "I think I've just gotten about six inches flatter..." Lloyd, however, was not listening.

"Aww, Professooooor...c'mon. I'm hungry!" he whined. "I can't fight on an empty stomach!"

"Then make yourself a sandwich." came the snapped reply. "We're leaving for the Tower of Mana."

_...the Tower of Mana? Oh crap..._

"We're facing Iubaris!" I squeaked. If I couldn't beat the horse in the game, how was I supposed to do it in real life? I didn't even have a weapon or something like that to defend myself.

Raine jerked around to look at me. "You know about Iubaris?"

"More than I'd like to." I replied, motioning to Noishe in hopes of riding him. "His light attacks are nasty, and he's weak to darkness."

"Is he now...hmm..." Raine's face took on a thoughtful look, which I supposed was good news. Noishe finally came over, and after a nod of permission from Lloyd I hopped onto the protozoan's back. Noishe whined and wiggled his ears as I wrapped my legs as tight as I dared around his stomach. As a kid, I'd ridden horses bareback once or twice, but dogs...were a whole different subject.

"Hey." I looked over in surprise, Kratos was talking to me.

"What?"

"Catch." A small cloth-wrapped object was tossed my way, I leaned over to catch it and nearly fell off Noishe's back. Wriggling back into position, I unwrapped the cloth to discover a small sheath with a dagger handle sticking out of it. Grasping the handle, I gasped as a Hydra Dagger slid out, the light blue crystal blade gleaming in the sunlight.

"Kratos...this is..."

"The Hydra Dagger I didn't need, but somehow picked up in Luin anyway." he replied tonelessly. "I suspect that was your doing, so there you go." I gaped at Kratos, then the dagger, before putting it away and tucking it inside my jacket.

"Kratos...thanks." I sighed, giving a small smile before signaling to Noishe, and the dog trotted off after the party, which by now was walking across the plain towards the Tower of Mana. Along the way, I couldn't help but wonder if that was Kratos' way of apologizing... The Hydra Dagger was much more powerful than his current weapon, and it didn't seem to make sense for him to downgrade.

_Thanks a lot, Kratos...you have no idea how much this helps. _

----------

It took all of the morning and part of the afternoon to reach the Tower of Mana, during which I managed to pry a few tidbits of instruction from Kratos on how to properly use the Hydra Dagger to defend myself (or, at least, not kill myself with it while _trying_ to defend myself). During that time, I discovered that while Kratos was normally cold and blunt half the time, he seemed quite amused at my attempts to perform techniques with the dagger.

"Your focus is weak, and your thrust isn't nearly fast enough." Kratos admonished me, for roughly the thirtieth time that day. "Put everything out of your mind except the target and your blade, and try again."

"You're got to be kidding me," I panted, giving Kratos a pleading look as I plodded along behind the party. Apparently, training with the Seraph included a lot of sparring, and it was really starting to wear me out. _At this rate, I won't have enough energy left to fight Iubaris_, I figured, chuckling at the irony.

_I can see it now- I finally master the Sonic Thrust in the middle of a battle, and then Iubaris kills me. Oh joy._

"-what's so funny?" Kratos' voice snapped me out of my daydream. I looked up and sighed.

"Oh, nothing. Just envisioning my death at the hooves of Iubaris."

"Well, if you're done slacking, try again."

_Try again. Right._ I grumbled to myself, bringing the dagger up and holding it out straight in front of me, aimed for Kratos' stomach. Closing my eyes for a moment, I thought about nothing but my weapon and stabbing Kratty in the gut (which was NOT a pleasant thought for a diehard fangirl), then quickly snapped my eyes open and lunged.

There was an "Oof!" and a sharp clang, which lead to a moment of silence as the wind from my attack rebounded back at me, and I realized that Kratos had been forced to draw his sword to block my attack. Staring at the Hydra Dagger, I blinked and looked up at Kratos, who seemed somewhat surprised.

"Wow, Emily. You almost landed a hit on Kratos!"

Lloyd's exclamation snapped me out of my reverie as I jumped back, a little shocked at that fact. _I_, a fourteen-year-old weakling, had nearly got a Sonic Thrust on _Kratos!_

_Dear Martel, what's wrong with me? This isn't normal..._

"...indeed. It was a good hit." Kratos resheathed his sword and huffed slightly, taking a step back and turning towards the Tower, which was by now quite close. "A little slow and lacking technique, but decent enough that you'll survive the Tower of Mana."

"...gee. You always know just what to say, don't you?" I muttered, tucking away my dagger and running after the others, who had by now moved off again.

----------

Let's get one thing clear right now, folks. The Tower of Mana is _scary_. Not scary-weird, just plain scary. There are ghosts and specters and freakin' possessed TOYS crawling all over the place, and that alone is enough to make your skin crawl.

The only good thing about them is that you can snag a Black Quartz or two from them, and Iubaris is weak to darkness. Joy. Other than that, I was more than willing to call in the GhostBusters and let them do the work for me, like right now.

"Damn...Ghost...Sword..." I growled, blocking another swipe from the floating sword in front of me that was _currently_ trying to go for my jugular, though it's target seemed to be changing from neck to belly. "Why will you not...fucking _die_...already!"

"_ANGEL FEATHERS!"_

A feathery cloud of pink and purplish halos zoomed past me, striking the sword and knocking it off target as it swooped in towards my stomach, so as I result, I got my side sliced up instead.

"Ow. Dammit..."

Reaching down, I gripped the demon sword by the hilt and yanked it out. Vibrating furiously, the evil sword snapped up and went right for my face, with only my faltering grip holding it millimeters away from gouging out my eyes.

_Oh no you don't, you stupid sword. I just had these healed, and I don't want them screwed up again!_

Gritting my teeth, I slowly yanked the possessed sword down to about my chest area, then stabbed down into the dark blade as hard as I could with the Hydra Dagger. There was a screech, and then the sword's blade shattered into pieces. Sighing, I let the hilt drop to the floor, where it slowly melted away into the ground.

Looking about, I realized that the one remaining Specter was toast with everybody ganging up on it, and headed over to help when pain lanced through my side. Looking down, it didn't take me long to realize that the upper left part of my pants was stained with blood oozing out from my recent sword wound, and it _hurt_. Grabbing my side, I went down on one knee with tears streaming from my eyes.

Martel, this hurt worse than the time I'd sliced my thumb open with a pocketknife, or broken my wrist, or fallen out of that one pine tree into a thorn bush...

"Oh no, you're hurt! Here..." Raine came rushing over, and lowered her staff against my side, whispering the words to First Aid. Familiar green light emerged from her staff, and then the wound was gone, the only thing remaining was a long scar.

"Raine...you're a lifesaver. Thanks." I gasped, wiping a tear from the corner of my eye and rising slowly to my feet, with some help from Colette and Genis. "And Colette, you probably spared my life with those angel feathers...you really _are_ the Chosen One."

Colette went bright red and giggled. "Thanks! I guess I really am, aren't I?"

"No duh, dork." Lloyd sighed, shaking his head. "Sheesh, you'd think the first seal would have told her that..."

"Let's keep going." _Man Kratos, the game never made you out to be _this_ much of an insensitive jerk...how the hell did you ever end up with Anna anyway?_ Shaking my head, I realized that I was falling behind again and dashed off.

Thanks to my efforts twice before in the Tower of Mana, all the block puzzles and whatnot were already done, so it wasn't hard for us to reach the warp heading to the seal. Before stepping into the warp, I took a deep breath and suppressed an involuntary cringe. Fudge, but facing Iubaris in person would be hard...more terrifying than watching him on TV, that was for certain.

"Don't tell me your courage is failing you."

Slowly jerking my head around in annoyance, I glared at Kratos, who was standing behind me and waiting for me to hurry up and jump in the warp already. "No, it is not. I am merely _preparing_ myself _mentally_ so that when I face the Light Horse of d00m I don't have a fucking _aneurysm_." I growled. Kratos "hmphed", and I jumped into the warp.

It was cold on the steps leading up to the Tower of Mana. I waited with Lloyd, Genis, and Raine for Kratos and Colette to show up, and when they did we all headed up to the altar. Once at the top, Genis went into his usual rant about "powerful mana welling up", and then Iubaris appeared. The tannish-black pegasus snorted, then let out this sort of roaring neigh and charged, slamming into Lloyd and Kratos with his front hooves and heading right for the back of the line. That was bad.

Raine was working on a healing spell and Colette was praying to Martel, Genis was working on some sort of elemental spell and I- I was positively paralyzed. Iubaris was _much, much_ bigger up close than I'd ever seen on a screen. Add that to his kickass intimidation factor and...yeah. I was so going to die now.

"_Snap out of it!"_

Holy crap, Kratos. The ancient mercenary dove in front of me and activated his Guardian, shielding us both from Iubaris' strike with a wall of mana.

"Pull yourself together!" He snapped, elbowing me in the side to remind me that I could move. Stumbling over to the left, I pulled out my Hydra Dagger and gulped, my mind having gone completely blank. Iubaris turned to swat at Lloyd with his tail while I stood there, shaking like a leaf, attack opportunities going right over my head.

"Stop shaking and hit him!" Kratos yelled, swiping at Iubaris' hind legs with his sword. It left a thin line of blood on the pegasus' flank, and the seal guardian neighed in pain.

"Bu- Wha- Alright!" For lack of anything better to do, I ran up and jabbed Iubaris in his hock, and the horse practically screamed. Wheeling, he glared at me with an evil light in his little red eyes, and my mouth went dry. Once more, I was rooted to the spot with fear as Iubaris lowered his head to display his horn and lunged.

_...oh, shit. I'm going to die. Somehow, I knew this would happen..._

"Focus!" Kratos yelled from behind Iubaris as he ducked under his spiked tail and slashed at his hindquarters. "Remember what you learned this morning!"

_What I learned this morning...? Oh! Sonic Thrust! Nothing but yourself, the blade, and the target..._

"Take this, horse." I muttered weakly, ducking under Iubaris' horn and lunging forward. "Sonic Thrust!"

_Whump._ Right in the nose.

Iubaris _roared,_ louder than I'd ever thought possible for a horse. Just when I thought I'd go deaf from the noise he was making, Lloyd raced up.

"TIGER BLADE!"

_Swip. Swop. _Lloyd's twin blades sliced two very clean, deep lines in the side of Iubaris' neck, and then the guardian spirit went completely mad. Shaking my dagger out of his nose, Iubaris swung his head about and knocked Lloyd and I to the side with his horn, before kicking out with his hind legs at Kratos. Catching the mercenary in the shoulder, Kratos was also thrown to the ground, struggling to get up like the rest of us.

"...ow. Martel, that hurts." I gasped, trying to sit up and feeling immense pain throughout three of my left ribs. "I'm going to swear I broke something..." Lloyd, however, seemed completely unaffected as he got up, shook his head to get his bearings, then recollected his swords and went back to pounding on Iubaris. I watched him go, managing to sit up partway, but otherwise unable to move.

Snorting, Iubaris kicked off Lloyd, Kratos, and Genis, who'd dashed in for a quick hit, and then flew up into the air as something bright began to glow at the base of his horn. I gasped as I realized what was happening, and tried to ignore the pain in my chest as I started screaming at the others.

"RUN! GET UNDER IUBARIS! HE'S USING FORCE RAY!"

"He's using _what_?" someone, probably Raine, yelled as everybody began the mad dash to get underneath Iubaris. Gasping, I staggered to my feet and immediately grabbed my side as pain shot through, swift as a lightning bolt. There was no way I could get underneath the guardian in time...

_Great, this time I'm going to die for real...AH FUCK I'M GONNA DIE! NONONONONONONONONONOOOO!_

"Lloyd, help me!" Colette swooped down on her pink wings and grabbed me under the arms, lifting me up and half dragging me over towards the others under Iubaris. Right behind her was Lloyd, who starting shoving me in the back in attempts to make the evacuation go faster.

Between the two of them, I made it underneath the guardian's belly just in time, as a great beam of focused energy slammed into the area where we'd previously been. It carved a giant crater into the ground, throwing big chunks of rock into the air and blinding everyone for a minute.

I never got a moment to rest. The second Lloyd and Colette dumped me on the ground, Iubaris started dropping from the sky. I was in the process of screaming my damaged lungs out when Kratos grabbed me by the back of my jacket and threw me out of the way, towards the back of the battlefield where Raine and Genis were.

"Stay there! You're finished!" He yelled at me, and then carved a long slash down Iubaris' hip. I coughed, feeling dust from the air grate in my lungs as a familiar copperish taste appeared in my mouth. Blood.

Good grief, was I bleeding from the inside!

_No_, I winced, realizing what had happened, _I just bit my tongue when Kratos threw me. Ow, dammit._

"Oh dear. Hold on, you're hurt pretty badly." Raine frowned, going to work with her staff again. I didn't need her to tell me that I was hurt, most likely I'd broken my ribs or something. The healing light flared out from Raine's staff, and I practically melted in relief. The pain was slowly going away, fading until it wasn't much more than a dull ache deep inside my chest.

"Am I healed?" I asked, taking a deep calming breath and then nearly choking on it as my lungs protested _violently_, pain reappearing again.

"Not quite. I got your ribs, but not your lungs." Raine replied, fishing around in her pack. "Here, eat this. It'll make you feel better." She held out a small, slimy red orb and deposited it into my hand. "Try and stay behind Genis and I, you'll be safer." With that said, she went back to healing Lloyd and Kratos as they hacked and slashed away at Iubaris.

"Thanks...I think." I muttered, looking down at the red thing in my hand. _Apple gel. Gosh, did I really make the others eat these things? They're so...gross._

"Bottoms up..." I swallowed the gel. It was like eating a glob of shaving cream, sliding down my throat and leaving a distinctly nasty aftertaste with just a hint of apple. I gagged a bit, and then dragged myself over behind Raine to watch the rest of the fight.

Iubaris was finished, that much was clear. With each move, his reaction time became slower and hits less powerful, leaving Lloyd and Kratos more time to recover and strike back. Add that to Genis and Colette, who were casting spells and hacking away, and the giant horse was doomed.

"SPREAD!"

"PARA BALL!"

"CROSS THRUST!"

...Unison attack. Bombarded by lightning and water, Iubaris was paralyzed as Lloyd and Kratos cut through his back legs with their twin thrusts. Whinnying in pain, he slumped to the ground, strength gone, and began to disintegrate. The Light Seal's guardian was dead.

"Whew. Man, I'm beat." Lloyd muttered, wiping his brow as he cleaned his swords and put them away. I watched Kratos and Colette do the same, and then felt someone tap my shoulder.

"Genis?"

"You dropped this." He said, and held out my Hydra Dagger, stained with blood. I stared at it, then took it from him and shook it a bit, sending the thick crimson liquid everywhere.

"Genis, I owe you." I grinned, carefully shoving myself up from the ground and slowly walking over towards the altar, where Colette was currently praying to Martel. The minute she was done, her wings popped out again, and she hovered up in the air.

A shaft slid up out of the altar, and something started glowing in it. After a few seconds, an outline appeared, and I gasped. It was Luna, one of the Summon Spirits of Light.

_/Where is Aska/_ she lamented, looking down at us. _/I can do nothing without him.../_

"Probably out gallivanting around some Linkite Tree," I muttered as the Spirit vanished, to be replaced with a floating ball of light. There was a feathery burst, and then the angel Remiel appeared before us. The sight of him made me want to chop off his wings and stuff a feather pillow with them, but then came the reminder that I could beat his face in as much as I wanted when we hit the Tower of Salvation. Even though that could take a while.

"Colette, my daughter."_ she's not your daughter_ "You have done well in reaching this far. We of Cruxis will now grant you more angelic power." _you mean you're going to make that crystal of hers grow faster so she can't sleep_ "Hurry and become a true angel. Do not disappoint me...my beloved daughter, Colette." _ugh, I think I'm going to throw up. somebody get me a barf bag._

"Yes Father." Colette replied, and was engulfed in a swirl of light, which made her wings grow brighter and beat more strongly. Remiel nodded, and then poofed out in a cloud of feathers, leaving the rest of us to stare at Colette as she willed her wings back in.

"Well, let's be going." Raine sighed, walking away with Genis in tow. Kratos followed after, leaving Lloyd and Colette to help me with the walk down the stairs to the warp.

----------

As everyone was walking out the front door looking like Armageddon was about to arrive, I suddenly stopped with the memory of what was supposed to happen here.

"Guys, wait! Boltzman's book!" I yelled as loud as I dared, before walking over to a nearby bookshelf. Scanning the titles, I looked for one that was written in Elvish (or seemed to be written in Elvish, anyway). Up on a high shelf, an old blue novel seemed to have gibberish scrawled on the binding, so I reached for that one.

Just as my hand touched the book, there was a loud screech and what looked like black ooze swept out from around the books and descended on my hand. Yanking back with a yelp, I tried to shake the pestilence off, but it wouldn't relinquish its hold. A numbing, yet strangely burning sensation set in, and I reached for my Hydra Dagger with dread. Pulling out the blue crystal blade, I gulped, and then stabbed my hand.

My ears were assaulted with sounds of screams, mine and the black thing's, as it reformed right there in my palm into a sort of impish creature, a mix between a bat and raccoon. Squealing, it scratched me once or twice before beginning to fade, and I yanked out the Hydra Dagger, which hadn't gone too deeply into my skin.

"Emily! What's wrong?" Lloyd exclaimed, dashing in through the front door and over to the bookshelf, where I was trying to control the bleeding from my hand.

"Lloyd! I dunno...this black thing came out from around Boltzman's book and attacked me, so I stabbed it, and..." Looking down at my palm, I stared at the dark stone now sitting there where the imp had been. "And this happened..."

"Weird. It looks like an exsphere, almost." Lloyd mused, picking up the stone and looking at it before giving it back to me. I stuck it in my pocket, and then pointed up at the shelf.

"The book. Get it for Raine and she'll love you for life."

"Eew, I don't want that." Lloyd made a face as he grabbed the book and tucked it under his arm. "I just want better grades." Laughing, we both went out the front door to where the others were.

Once outside, we saw the others setting up camp and knew that Colette's Angel Toxicosis had set in. She was sitting on the steps watching Raine and Kratos make a fire, and looking rather forlorn. Her lips were blue again, I noted.

"Hey, Professor! We got Boltzman's book!" Lloyd called out, and Raine came over right away.

"You did? Good job, Lloyd. Wait a minute, you're hurt _again_?"

"I couldn't help it, Raine." I sighed, holding out my bloody hand. "Trouble just seems to follow me around..."

"You're worse than Colette," Raine muttered under her breath, and set about to healing my hand. In the meantime, Lloyd helped Kratos with the fire, and then sat back to enjoy the heat and complain that he was hungry.

When Raine was done with me, we both went over to the fire and sat down. I reached into my pocket, pulled out the rock I'd gotten earlier, and proceeded to stare at it. "Lloyd, do you think this _is_ an exsphere?" I asked, after several minutes of nothing but staring.

"I dunno. It has a similar shape, but that's about it." he replied, reaching over to take the small blackish stone from me. "I've never seen one this color before."

"Where did you get that stone?"

"Kratos?" I looked up and over at him. Kratos was staring intently at the supposed exsphere in Lloyd's hand, and I had no doubts that he was definitely straining his angelic sight to pick out all the details. "This black-imp thing attacked me when I was getting Boltzman's book, so I killed it...and that appeared."

"Of course," Kratos sighed, running a hand through his auburn hair. "It's a Demon's Heart. I should have known."

"It's a what?" I took back my rock and looked at it. "I killed a demon?"

"Apparently." Kratos replied, looking a little bored now at having to tell campfire stories to kids. "You're lucky to have found it, though. They can be equipped like exspheres, but have different effects depending on the user. They work best on the person who killed the demon..."

"Is that so?" I mused, turning the heart over to study it from a different angle. "Lloyd, do you think you could make me a Key Crest?"

"That won't work." Kratos put in. "Ordinary Key Crests do strange things to Demon's Hearts, they make them unstable. You need a special kind in order to make them work properly." My face fell. Dang, and just when it seemed like my ticket to a life free of pain had arrived...

"However, if you want to equip it now, it won't hurt you. The Hearts are more stable than exspheres, and won't cause your body's mana to go out of control." Kratos continued, looking a little alarmed at my squeak of joy, and then he gave a little smile to himself, which nobody saw.

"Awesome! So, should I equip it now, or what?" I asked, turning to the others. Raine, who had been listening closely, frowned.

"I don't know. Kratos, what is the time that the Heart will remain stable?" Kratos looked up a bit, and shrugged.

"I'm not quite certain, though I am sure that she will be safe from harm for several months." he replied.

"In that case, go ahead." Raine nodded. "At this rate, it won't take us long to crack the other Seals, and then we can have Dirk look into making you a Key Crest."

"Alright. Here goes." I sighed, and pulled down the neck of my t-shirt a bit. Turning away from the boys, I placed the small black stone against my skin in the middle of my chest, just below where my collarbones met. The Demon's Heart did nothing for a moment, then glowed a bit and sank halfway into my skin, so that only part of the smooth black rock was visible.

I turned back around, and was met with grins of approval from Lloyd, Genis, and Colette. "Wow, that's so cool! I wish I had a Demon's Heart instead of an exsphere." Lloyd whined. I looked over at Kratos, who was giving Lloyd a dark look, and then I whacked the teenage swordsman lightly in the head.

"Don't talk about your exsphere like that. It probably has more meaning than you even know." I told him, and Kratos gave me a grateful look. I smiled back.

_Yeah, I know...that one was for you, Anna._


	3. Visiting Lake Umacy

I woke the next morning to the smell of something frying, and looked over at the fire pit. Ooo, Kratos was making omelets... I'd never been too fond of eggs in the morning, but when made by the guys from ToS, I'd be more than glad to give it another try. Since everybody else seemed to be up, or in the process of getting up, I estimated the time to be around nine and yawned. That was early for me.

And then it hit me- _Holy crap, I've been away from home for a whole day now! Man, my parents must be in their graves by now..._ I thought a moment, and then shrugged. _Good riddance!_

My chest twinged, and I looked down curiously. Seeing the black stone set into my skin, I smiled as I remembered the Demon's Heart, which was now apparently my 'exsphere'. Personally, I couldn't wait to try it out, but I was also a little afraid that it might go out of control and kill me or something.

_But Kratos said the Heart is stable_, I reminded myself. _So I'm going to be okay._ Getting up and stretching, I retrieved my Hydra Dagger from where it had lain that night on the ground, and tucked it in my jacket, frowning as I noticed the numerous rips and tears. All my fighting had certainly done a number on my clothing... I wondered why the others didn't get their clothes all scuffed up, and then figured that Symphonian cloth was probably made out of stronger stuff.

"Breakfast." Kratos said, dishing out portions of omelet, and I rushed over so that I could at least get a crumb or two, what with the way Lloyd and Genis were scarfing down the food...

"So, where do we go now?" Lloyd asked later, wiping his mouth and looking around expectantly. There was a moment of quiet silence, during which everyone looked at Raine, while she looked at me.

"I don't know. Where do we go next?" she asked. I frowned a moment, trying to remember the synopsis of the Hard Path...

_Lesse, Luin-Hima-Tower of Mana-Luin..._

"...Asgard." I replied, bringing my focus back to the group. "We go to Asgard next."

"Are you sure?" Lloyd asked, looking confused.

"Pretty sure. After all, didn't Cleo III build a monument or something like that to the Summon Spirit of Wind? That's got to be a seal." I said, looking to Raine for conformation, who nodded.

"Asgard it is, then." Kratos stated, getting up and gathering his bags. "We'd best get moving if we want to get most of the way there by nightfall."

"You're far too practical, Kratos." I muttered as I passed by him to grab my own pack (kindly provided by Colette) and summon Noishe for a ride. Something told me this would be a long day...

----------

...I've got to stop being right all the time (or most of the time, anyway).

The day was seemingly quite long as we trudged along the road, and then through the grass, and then some woods, and then more grass. Along the way we were attacked by several monsters, some of which included giant bugs (Lloyd later asked me why I kept screaming "RAID! SOMEBODY GET ME A CAN OF RAID!"), a bunch of bandits, and then a cockatrice. However, by that point we were rather tired and not in a fighting mood, so we decided to run instead.

Now, as we trudged into a clearing in front of a lake, I promptly staggered to the water's edge and plopped down on a log, panting. "Ah, thank Martel we got away, I thought that stupid thing would chase us all the way to Asgard..."

"I'm huuuuuuuungry...when do we eat...?" Lloyd moaned, dropping to the ground and falling backwards in a mock faint. The others stared at us with a mixture of pity and embarrassment, and then Lloyd and I were promptly ignored.

"Gah...this sucks." I muttered, leaning back slightly and stretching. Apparently, though, I leaned back a little farther than was wise, because the next thing I knew I'd fallen straight into Lake Umacy.

"ACK!" _SPLOOSH!_ The water in the lake was very clear, and quite warm actually. Blinking once or twice, I caught sight of something white and fluffy on the bottom of the lake before flipping right side up and swimming to the surface.

"Need a hand?" Lloyd commented as I clawed my way up and over the troublesome log that had resulted in my sudden bath, onto the bank. Soaking wet, I shoved some of my hair out of my eyes and growled. I felt like a distinctly pissed cat that had just been dunked in a bathtub, and my appearance went to show it. Hmm...at least those bloodstains were coming out of my jeans, somewhat...but that was besides the point. Shrugging off my jacket, I rolled it up a bit, and then shook it out at the others, snapping it out almost like a whip.

"If I'm getting wet, then you guys are too! Take this!"

Lloyd and Genis ran screaming like little girls into the woods. Colette squealed when some water drops hit her in the eye, and then she tripped over a rock and fell on the ground. Raine, of course, blanched and took off behind some tree, while Kratos just stood there and glared daggers at me. He, clearly, was not amused by the situation.

"Gods, Kratos, you need to lighten up." I remarked, before taking my jacket and wringing out the rest of it all over his head. From somewhere in the woods, I heard two very shocked gasps, doubtless from Lloyd and Genis, the two chickens.

Kratos looked at me for a moment, seemingly rather shocked. I couldn't figure out why it would bother him, he couldn't feel it after all...

"I need to lighten up, eh?" He said finally, after what seemed eternity. "If that's the case, then I know someone who needs to take another dip in the lake!"

"...Shit!" I squeaked, throwing down the remains of my jacket and taking off into the woods, similar to Lloyd and Genis. As a matter of fact, I found them hiding in the first tree I scrambled up, trying to look inconspicuous. (Of course, they were wearing red and blue, so that little endeavor wouldn't work...) Since I was wearing blue jeans and a white t-shirt, I didn't exactly blend in either, but what the hell. As long as I was away from Kratos.

Lloyd and Genis protested violently as I skittered over them and up into a fairly high branch, before settling and looking down at the ground. Raine and Colette had by now gotten off the ground and come out of hiding, and were looking up at the three of us in the tree. Well, make that one of me, apparently Lloyd had fallen out of the tree and Genis was climbing down after him. Squinting down at the others, I cursed as I spied Kratos down at the base of the tree, and apparently casting...something.

"Wind Blade!"

..._oh shit_.

The spell hit the base of the branch I was sitting on, and next thing I knew, I was falling. It was a long fall, and a very painful one. Numerous twigs scratched me and scuffed up my clothes, making them even _worse_ for the wear. (And by now, trust me, they were pretty bad to start with.) I ended up hitting all my limbs on almost every available branch, and then I was just falling towards the ground- dear Martel, I wasn't going to die in battle. I was going to die from falling out of a _tree_.

"...Gotcha!"

_Oomph!_ I blinked, very slowly, not realizing that I had closed my eyes upon the expected moment of impact. Looking around, it took me a moment to realize that someone had caught me, and that someone was Lloyd.

...oh my. I think I'd just forgotten to breathe again.

"Wow, you look like you've been through the wringer." He commented, setting me down gently. "But at least now we know that Heart thing is working correctly."

"What? It is?" I looked down at my arms, the multitude of scratches there were slowly starting to fade, leaving thin scars. Now that I thought about it, I could feel a kind of pulsation coming from my chest. The Demon's Heart was thumping madly, drawing on my strength to heal my wounds. I stared at the little black rock, and then back up at Lloyd. "That's good, I suppose...oh, and thank you for catching me. I thought I was going to die for a moment there..."

"Man, Kratos went too far." Lloyd muttered, rubbing the back of his head with a slight mix of embarrassment and anger. "I'm going to have to talk with him about this later..."

Lloyd? Chew out Kratos? Woo, I was definitely going to have to see that. As it was, it seemed the crisis was averted for now, so I followed Lloyd back to where the others were making camp.

The rest of the evening was rather ordinary. We yucked out over Raine's cooking, recounted past adventures, and did a little sparring. That only extended to Lloyd and I as we chased Kratos around the edge of the lake, with him insulting us as we rained curses and sword techniques down on his head. I was trying to work on learning 'Demon Fang' now, but it was definitely harder to do with a dagger than a sword. Or maybe that was just my lack of experience speaking.

After that was over, we collapsed at the fire's edge, panting and laughing our asses off. Even though fighting Kratos was tough, it was actually rather fun after a bit, and I was lucky enough to see him make a joke while fighting! That was history being made, right there. Of course, now I was dead tired and extremely sore, my limbs feeling like they were made out of jelly. The Demon's Heart was pumping like mad in my chest, and I was surprised nobody could hear it throbbing below my shirt. (I also wondered if Kratos could with his superior hearing, but apparently he either knew and was hiding it, or couldn't hear it.)

As we settled down for bed I heard Raine making a remark about getting me new clothes in Asgard, but I was too tired to listen or care. Plunking down on the ground with my semi-damp jacket for a pillow, I pulled a blanket over me and curled up fast asleep.


	4. Asgard and the Windmaster

"...wow. Asgard is BIG."

I looked sideways at Lloyd and shook my head. One of these days, I was just going to _have_ to show the kid New York City. And then we'd see what could be classified as 'big'.

Despite that fact, Asgard was a fairly impressive city. Tucked away within a canyon on one side of the abyss, it sported many old weathered stone formations and arches, some of which I knew from memory held _extremely_ old ruins. Cave paintings, if I recalled correctly, which I figured Raine might drag us to see sooner or later... I decided to spare us the headaches and make it sooner.

"Hey Raine! Aren't there really old murals in this place? Let's go see them!"

I was met with evil glares from the guys, a blank look from Colette, and the Professor looked like she'd snorted sugar.

"MURALS!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, startling several passersby. "LET'S GO!"

_Five minutes later..._

"FANTASTIC!" Raine squealed with supersonic force, causing dogs outside to whimper and several birds to drop dead right out of the sky. "These are perfectly well-preserved paintings over 4000 years old, depicting the activities of King Cleo III and the Summon Spirit of Wind from the Ancient War! Fascinating..."

While Raine went off on her own little tangent about the awesomeness of King Cleo and the information revealed in the cave paintings, Colette sat by and listened, unaware of Genis and Lloyd pounding away on me.

"What were you thinking!" Lloyd hissed at me. "Don't you know how much the Professor craves old things!"

"Yeah! Now we're going to be stuck in here all day listening to her rant!" Genis chimed in, smacking my side lightly with his kendama. Thankfully, he hadn't yet upgraded to a Duel Star, but the little rubber ball still hurt against my ribs, which were still recovering from my run-in with Iubaris.

"Ow! Genis! Yes, I know about her obsession...it was all a part of my plan." I said, rubbing my side and slowly edging away from Lloyd and Genis towards the exit. Instantly, they stopped hunting me and looked confused.

"Plan?" Lloyd cocked his head to the side, confused. "What plan?"

"She's very smart, Lloyd." Kratos spoke from the entrance, silhouetted against the outside sunlight. "Quickly, before Ms. Sage notices we're gone!" Genis gasped, nodding with sudden understanding, but Lloyd apparently was still confused. Amidst his sputtering, I grabbed hold of the white ribbons on the back of his shirt and dragged him out the door.

The minute we were outside Lloyd yanked his ribbons free of my grasp, and I promptly fell down, laughing so hard I nearly cried. The three guys stared down at me rolling around in the dirt, and then pretended they didn't know me.

"What's your problem?" Lloyd asked a minute later, when most of my laughter had ceased and I was panting for breath. Standing and dusting myself off, I wiped a tear from the corner of my eye.

"Sorry Lloyd, but...I've always wanted to do that!" I giggled, watching him get all confused again.

"Do what?"

"Pull you around by those ribbon things on the back of your neck! Every time I played the game I kept imagining someone randomly grabbing you and yanking you around...and I got to do it!" I laughed again. "That'll be something to tell my grandkids..."

"Indeed," Kratos smiled, a small smirk as he leaned against a natural rock wall. "And now, perhaps we should restock our supplies? I understand there's a weapons shop around here having a sale..."

Lloyd and Genis were gone before he even got finished with the word "weapons".

"So..." I mused, watching their retreating backs, "What should we do...?" Kratos sighed, and checked his money bag before shoving off the wall and walking towards a staircase.

"We should probably get you some better clothes," he said, motioning with a lazy wave of the hand. "Come on..." I blinked once, and then trotted after him.

_30 minutes later..._

It didn't take too long for us to find some new clothing for me. We sold off the old stuff (the lady who got it was especially fascinated by my jacket) in return for new stuff, and I stepped out of a changing room decently attired for a look in a mirror. Truth be told, it wasn't much of a change- I'd gone from blue jeans to just plain blue pants, plus a belt, a white shirt with three-quarter sleeves and a semi-deep neckline, and a brown vest which fastened at my neck and had a sort of diamond pattern at the top like Colette's tunic. Like I said, not much of a change. The only thing that remained original were my sneakers...but I had a sneaking suspicion that they would be the next things to go.

Inspecting my outward appearance, I pulled my hair back into its usual ponytail and nodded to Kratos, who was sitting on a bench nearby. "This is fine. Let's go."

"That'll be 400 gald." The saleswoman said pleasantly. She got her money from Kratos, and then we left.

"Well, now what do we do...?" I mused, taking the sheath for my Hydra Dagger and buckling it onto my belt. "It must nearly be time for us to head back to Raine and Colette..."

"Hey guys!" Lloyd came running up, with Genis panting behind him. "I take it you had luck shopping?"

"What do you think?" I grinned. "Get anything new?"

"A few gels and life bottles, and Genis got- OW!"

Genis had whacked him with his newly-acquired Duel Star. "Lloyd! I wanted to tell them!"

"You can still tell the Chosen and Professor Sage when we get back." Kratos said, being overly practical and a mood killer as always. "Now, shall we go?"

We got back to the ruin cave in time to hear Colette say "That's all a bit confusing, Professor. Could you explain it again, a bit slower?"

"I'd be happy to, Colette. Now, King Cleo III-"

Tuning out Raine, I chuckled and turned to the others as we all bunched around the door opening. "Well, looks like we've got some more time...now what?"

There were several moments of silence as we thought of all the possible activities that could be done in a city of ancient ruins. That didn't make for a very long list...

"...well, I suppose we could teach you some magic..." Kratos muttered finally, for lack of anything better to say. I snapped to attention at this, staring at him with something similar to crazy-fangirl mode or Raine's ruin-obsession mode.

"Really!" Oops, I squealed. Shouldn't have done that.

"Yes, really." Kratos growled, wincing under the sonic onslaught. "Now we just have to find someplace quiet to practice..."

That lead to more meditative thought.

"Say...how about that old ruin thingy up those steps? Remember Genis, that nice old man told us about it?" Lloyd suggested, poking his friend in the head. Genis scowled and pushed his hand away.

"Yes I remember! Stop poking me." He growled, pulling out his Duel Star. Lloyd winced and shrank back into hiding behind Kratos, who rolled his eyes.

"Very well, the 'ruin thingy' it is. Lead on." Kratos directed, and Lloyd took off with Genis right behind, chasing him with his kendama. Strangely enough, Kratos and I sighed at more-or-less the same time before following the hyper swordsman in red and the little shrimp in blue.

----------

It was very windy up on the stone platform where Lloyd and Genis led us. The wind ruffled our hair and threw it in our faces, making it nigh impossible for me to see. If not for my ponytail, I probably would have been reduced to a hairy blonde blob.

"Alright," Kratos spoke up against the wind, his messy auburn hair flung out of his eyes for once. He actually looked even hotter than usual that way, and I was desperately trying _not_ to blush. The stray strands of hair in my face helped to hide that fact, but even so the two troublemakers were still pointing and snickering. "Do you know any magic spells whatsoever?"

"Nope." I replied bluntly, "Unless you count the one angel spell I memorized from the game." Kratos nearly fell over in shock. I couldn't blame him.

"You know an angel spell? Which one?" Kratos asked, quickly recovering from his shock. I shrugged.

"I can't remember it now... If I recall it later, I'll be sure to tell you."

"Why, Kratos? Need a little heavenly guidance?" Lloyd ribbed, and Kratos cuffed him upside the head, glowering. I giggled along with Genis, until the mercenary turned his withering looks on us and we shut up.

"...continuing the magic lesson." Kratos sighed. "Do you know any defensive spells?"

"...nope." _Well, I know how to **say **'Guardian', but I don't think that counts for a spell..._

"Right. We'll start with that, then." Kratos drew his sword and motioned to me. "Come at me. Don't hold back."

"No problems there." I grumbled, drawing the Hydra Dagger and rushing at Kratos.

----------

When Raine and Colette came trudging up the long set of stairs an hour later, they found Kratos and Lloyd both jumping me in attempts to work on the strength of my Guardian spell. However, by that time I was so physically exhausted it was almost impossible to focus the mana and form it into a barrier. Add that to the fact that Genis was casting basic things like Stone Blast on me, and I was nearly wiped out.

"What the HELL do you think you're doing!" Raine snarled, barging in with her staff held high. She whacked both Lloyd and Kratos over the noggin, then grabbed Genis and slapped him in the butt. "First you walk out on my lectures, and then you start beating up innocents! You should be ashamed of yourselves!" Tossing Genis down on the ground, she then turned to me, and her voice got a lot softer. "Are you alright? You look like you need to have your magic replenished..." Digging into her pack, she brought out a slimy orange blob, and I winced. _Oh no, an orange gel! That's even worse than an apple gel..._

"No...I'm fine Raine, really..."

"Professor! What'd you have to do that for!" Lloyd yelled, rubbing the gigantic bump forming on his head. "We were only trying to teach her some magic!" Without looking, Raine accurately nailed him in the same spot again with her staff.

"Well, it doesn't take three people whaling on a beginner -no offense, dear- to teach them magic! Whose idea **was** this?" Lloyd, Genis, and I all pointed at Kratos, who met the accusations with steely glares.

"Don't even _think_ about blaming this on me." He said sharply. "Lloyd, you were the one who just randomly started attacking her and told Genis to cast spells."

"And you're the one who didn't stop us because you thought it would help build up her resistance!"

...oh, Summon Spirits. This was going nowhere fast.

"Guys, guys...and girls," I added quickly, looking to Colette and Raine. "I'm fine, really. Raine, they were only trying to teach me a defensive spell, that's not really an act worth getting your skull bashed in for..."

"Hear, hear!" Genis cheered, rubbing his aching butt. "Nobody can do a good deed around Raine anymore without getting killed!" He squeaked when Raine turned her patented 'Evil Older Sister Death Glare' on him, and ducked behind Lloyd.

"Anyway, I think I've got the theory down," I said, turning to Kratos, "So the rest should just come naturally, eh?" He nodded.

"That's the general idea, the rest will come with practice..."

sigh "No rest for the weary, then..."

"Um..guys?" We turned to see Lloyd and Genis slowly edge away from Raine, who was hunched over and seemed to be muttering something under her breath. Her eyes were wide and fanatical...this could not be good.

"Head for the hills! She's lost it!" I yelled at roughly the same moment Raine's eyes popped with sudden understanding and she let out a shriek louder than any harpy. (And wouldn't you know it, several more dogs and birds dropped dead from the noise. And some old deaf people, too.)

"WE'RE STANDING ON A FABULOUS RUIN! OH MY GODDESS! I SIMPLY MUST STUDY IT RIGHT THIS INSTANT!"

...I meant it when I said head for the hills. Raine gathered up her staff and whacked all of us off the stupid ruin like we were golf balls. Soaring through the air, I caught sight of Raine's crazed expression before I hit the dirt, flat on my face. "Ow..."

Spitting out grass blades and gravel, I looked around at the others, most of which were bearing expressions of surprise on their faces. Colette, klutz that she was, had landed on top of Lloyd, so both were blushing immensely. Genis had somehow managed to land on his kendama, so now his rear was twice as sore, while Kratos had apparently used his mad angel skillz to land on his feet and was giving us a look that clearly said "I've sparred with you all for one hour and you can't even land on your feet! Pathetic!"

Looking up, I gulped as a shadow fell over us and Raine appeared on the edge of the stone dais, looking maniacal. "Now _this_ time," she grinned evilly, "You can't run away from my lecture! Mwahahahaha!" I'm going to swear that my blood froze in my veins, and that even my Demon's Heart stopped beating. "Now then, this dais was built by King Cleo III in honor of the Summon Spirit of Wind..." It was remarkably easy to tune Raine out.

While she stood there with her eyes closed and arms crossed, lecturing her brains out (if such a thing was possible) I slunk away around the corner of the giant stone dais, and was tripped by Lloyd.

"Waugh!" _Oopmh._ Damn, how'd I end up eating dirt for the second time today?

"Where'ya going?" Lloyd asked, curiously. I got up and dusted myself off before looking cautiously over at Raine, to make sure she was still in Lecture Land.

"Well, when we were fighting, I thought I saw a stone thing on the back of this ruin that looked like an oracle stone..." Complete and total lies. But, in order to advance the plot and move it along, it was necessary to get the doofus around the back of the giant square rock. "So I thought I should check it out."

"Cool. Let's go!" ..._wow. He really **was** dumb enough to believe that stupid lie._ I now had new respect for Lloyd's lack of intelligence. Well, now that that was sorted out the two of us slunk around the corner of the rock, Indian-style, and headed off towards the back.

As we reached another corner and prepared to round it, sudden voices on that side prompted us to stop and hide (as best as two children wearing flashy clothing on a bleak landscape next to a horribly plain stone dais _can_ hide) as we eavesdropped on the person or persons kitty-corner us.

"-Harley, you can't just blow it up!" came one voice, clearly panicked.

"Why not? If we don't, Aisha will be sacrificed to that spirit! And with this new bomb, the unstoppable 'Breaker', that won't happen!"

"Blow up the ruin?" Lloyd sprung up from his spot and dashed around the corner before I could grab the white ribbons from his neck to yank him back. Cursing silently but allowing the plot to advance, I followed after him, skidding to a halt at the sight of a half-elf and human next to a brown boxy thing. It hardly looked like a bomb, but for the switch and number slots on the front. "Why would you want to blow up the ruin?"

"BLOW UP THE RUIN!" came an all too-familiar yell from the other side of the dais, and then Raine came running up. Lloyd and I watched, amazed, as she sidekicked one Offender of Humanity, and then dropkicked the other. I felt my jaw freely drop. "BLASPHEMY! THIS IS A WONDERFULLY PRESERVED PIECE OF HISTORY!" Raine ranted on, gesturing wildly with her hands. We could only watch in horror as she hit the detonation switch by accident. "Now, hear its history. This ruin was built in-"

Like a good little student, I raised my hand. "Professor?"

"Yes dear?"

"You set the bomb off."

Stunned stares all around, anyone?

Raine looked like she'd just swallowed arsenic. "...oh my. Is there any way to disarm it?" she asked the halfy and human, rather threateningly. The boy shook his head, and the halfy, Harley, laughed evilly.

"Of course not! There is no way to stop my unstoppable Breaker!" Raine dropkicked him again.

"Don't build things you can't control!"

We sane people near the corner just sweatdropped.

"Well...guess I'll just have to disarm it..." Lloyd muttered, crouching down near the bomb-box thing and going to work.

_Three minutes later..._

"There we go. All done." Lloyd grinned, wiping some sweat from his brow. Raine almost hugged him for saving her precious ruin. Meanwhile, the culprits were in the process of running away, so I pulled a Professor and booted them both in the ass. For once, someone besides me was eating dirt today.

"Hold up, defacers-of-history." I grinned in spite of myself. I am truly evil at heart. "Care to give us a little explanation on _why_ you wanted to blow this thing up?" _Tell us all about the oh-so-freaky Windmaster demon so we can kill him!_

"Alright. It's only fair- Harley!"

Harley was long gone, taking off faster than I would have thought for someone who'd been dropkicked twice and then kicked into the dirt.

"Ack. I...apologize for him." his companion sighed. "Perhaps we should go back to my house, he's probably hiding there..."

"Sounds good." Raine acknowledged, keeping a wary eye on the boy as we escorted him around to the other side of the dais, where the others were waiting with various degrees of interest.

"What happened?" Colette asked, worried. "We heard a lot of yelling, and then some fighting..." I laughed, Lloyd sweatdropped, and our captive cringed.

"Oh, nothing we couldn't handle," I grinned sadistically. "Just some local vandals trying to blow up the ruin, and Raine ended up kicking their butts."

"Speaking of local vandals, I believe this young fellow has something he wishes to tell us. Shall we proceed to his house?" Raine asked, somehow managing to turn it into more of a statement as she swept past us with her prize in tow. Falling into step in the back of the line, I couldn't help but mutter under my breath.

"Yes, tell us about the Windmaster and the stupid ritual..."

"Hm?" Kratos paused and looked back at me, I gulped. Damn, I'd forgotten about his freakishly keen angelic hearing again! How many more times would I forget about it and let something vital slip? "Did you say something?"

_Shit..._

"No, I was just talking to myself..." I fiddled nervously with my dagger sheath as I walked, coming past Kratos and down the steps. "Thinking about what's going to happen.."

"Ah..." Kratos fell in beside me, and didn't say anything else until we reached out destination.

----------

"So basically, there's an evil spirit living in the giant rock that eats pretty girls." I summed up our entire conversation over the past thirty minutes in less than twenty words. In return, I got stares, both confused and knowing. The knowing look came from Kratos (damn, the bastard _had_ heard!), of course. Leaning back against a post, I sweatdropped. "What?"

"That...was a very good summary," Raine said, clearly pleased. "Now, what should we do about this spirit?"

"Well, if it is a seal, we should go meet it," Colette said, looking about. The others in our group nodded assent.

"But, only I'm allowed up there to do the ceremony." Aisha bit her lip. A pretty young girl, she was the one chosen to do the traditional dance for the "Summon Spirit of Wind" which had Harley and his friend from the dais, Linar, so worried. Surprisingly, she wasn't too disturbed about the fact that she could potentially _die_ from dancing for the spirit...wow. If that was me I would've fled Asgard screaming my head off.

"What if Raine takes Aisha's place?" There was a stunned silence as we all just stared at Lloyd, amazed.

"...incredible. Lloyd just had a good idea!" Genis exclaimed, shaking his head in disbelief. "What's next, is it going to rain gald from the sky?"

"I think yer outta luck there, Shorty." I said, patting Genis on the top of the head. He growled, and swatted my hand away.

"Don't do that! I'm not somebody's pet!"

"Sor-ry. Sheesh..."

"Alright, enough." Raine sighed, flapping her hand at the two of us. "I'm going to go and get permission from whoever's in charge of this thing, who wants to come with me?" Lloyd, Genis, and Colette volunteered, whilst I politely declined.

"Sorry Raine. I'm still kinda bushed from my trouncing-" A frosty glare from Kratos. "-Oh sorry, _training_- earlier. Anybody mind if I rest a bit?"

"That's fine. We'll need you in shape to fight if it is a seal. Rest up, all right?" Raine nodded and left with Lloyd and Colette in tow. Passing by Aisha's offers to use her bed, I went up to the roof and slumped down against the outside wall of the second floor, just enjoying the sun's warmth. From up here, I could see orange, red, blue, and white blobs walking along the path back up to the great stone dais, and sighed.

_Well, there they go...that should be interesting._

"Hmph...this is quite the detour..." I nearly fell right off the roof in shock as Kratos appeared right next to me.

"Ack! Kratos! What the heck- have you been teleporting again?"

"What do you mean, _again_?" he asked, utterly calm. "I don't teleport." Grasping my chest and frantically thudding Demon's Heart, I slowly managed to calm both down.

"Ah, right, sorry...I'm getting myself mixed up again." Sighing deeply, I felt a soft breeze ruffle my hair. Then a thought struck me. "Kratos, you know where all the seals are, don't you?"

His answer was a long time coming. "...yes." Kratos said finally, his face still expressionless. I shook my head.

"This sucks. My second major battle in less than a week, and I'm still not healed from the first one. I wonder if I can sit it out..."

"Of course not." The Seraphim replied. "Challenging yourself will help build your skills and make you stronger."

We were both silent for a while after that as I brooded.

"Are you sure that it's not because you want me to get killed in battle and save yourself the trouble?" I muttered after a bit. Kratos chuckled quietly, a smirk etched on his features. Smarmy Seraphim.

"No, of course not." He smirked. "After all, I need someone with some knowledge of the general scheme of things to keep them on track..." I shook my head, trying to throw him off.

"What are you talking about? Colette's going to save the world and go to heaven." I lied, rather easily. After having a thing like that drilled into you twice, I suppose it's the sort of information that's easy to dish back out. Kratos' smirk instantly vanished, and he stared down at me with a cold and relentless gaze.

"Seriously, though. How much do you know about the Regeneration journey _in detail_?"

I gulped, shrinking back against the brick. It would take a more than a few minutes for everything to come clean...

----------

Later that day, the group in general _plus_ Aisha, Harley, and Linar stood in front of the stone dais to watch Raine perform the sacred dance for the "Summon Spirit of Wind." The tension in the air was so thick, I could have cut a donut hole out of it for a snack, and it wasn't just from waiting to see what would happen to Raine. After the scene on the roof an hour or so ago, Kratos had been rather quiet and contemplative, as well as watching me intensely. I didn't need to look to know that, I could _feel_ his eyes boring holes in the back of my spine. It wasn't the most pleasant thing in the world. Apparently, he was now judging whether or not I would be more of a help or a hindrance in his little quest. Silently, I prayed to Martel that it was 'help.'

Oh look, the ritual was starting...

Slowly and gracefully, Raine paced around the dais, stopping at certain intervals to depress stone buttons into the ruin with the point of her staff. While the others watched with growing anticipation, I sighed, checked to see that my supply of gels was up to par, and then pulled out my Hydra Dagger. Any minute now, Windmaster was going to pop up and give us all a show- something Kratos would _not_ let me get out of, that would be certain.

_"...and that's all I know about the journey."_

_I finished with a heavy sigh, absently playing with the end of my ponytail. I'd told Kratos what I knew up to the Tower of Salvation, but not after that. I hadn't told him about the resisting of Remiel, or the Renegades either. That was stuff in the future that I theoretically wasn't supposed to know, and I didn't think he needed to know right now. Especially since I was here now...I had a sneaking suspicion that things in the game were going to change, majorly. For even me, the future was now obscure and uncertain._

_"I see. I don't know how happy Lord Yggdrasill will be with us murdering all of his Grand Cardinals, but..." He shrugged, and I'm going to swear I saw a gleam of morbid amusement flash though Kratos' red eyes. Probably the thought of finally getting Kvar back for Anna's sake. "If it needs to be done in order to complete the journey, so be it."_

_"It's probably best that way." I said, noting Lloyd and the others returning down the path. "After all, I think the others would start getting suspicious if you objected to killing the Desians..."_

_"Indeed..."_

A sharp gust of wind brought me back to the present out of my reverie. Even without Genis' strange ability to sense mana, I could tell he was here: the demon, Windmaster. The wind was condensing into a column in front of Raine, and starting to take shape. A few seconds later, the wind had formed into a lilac-colored creature with a slightly dragonish head, long claws, twin fins on its back to serve as wings, and a giant blade in place of legs. Hovering inside its own personal wind tunnel, the demon glared down at us.

_/Ah, my sacrifice. Now I shall feast/_

Raine stood before him, utterly unafraid. Down on the ground, Lloyd was already drawing his swords. "Professor!"

"Let's go, Lloyd!" I yelled, leaping past up onto the platform with dagger drawn. "Trust me, this guy is _not_ Sylph!"

"Right. We're coming!" Lloyd called back, rushing up with Genis, Colette, and Kratos in tow. The Windmaster roared, and shot a gust of air right at the middle of the group. It knocked Raine back to the edge of the field, and sent Lloyd flying into Kratos in midleap. I crouched, trying my best to brace against the wind, and managed to avoid flying back a few feet. However, that left me horribly open to attacks, which resulted in a headache as the demon smacked me with one clawed hand and sent me skidding along the ground, back towards Raine.

"Ah...shit..." I hissed, sitting up painfully. The outside of my left arm was covered in shallow scrapes from where I'd been sliding along the stone, and the right side of my head had a small gash from Windmaster's claws. Somehow, I'd managed to keep a hold of my Hydra Dagger and not stab myself with it during my short flight across the dais. Thank Martel for that.

"Are you alright? Let me heal you-" I shook my head no at Raine.

"Save your energy and focus on them," I pointed at the others beating on the stupid demon. "And try to heal yourself first. If you go, we go, and that's not going to be pretty." Raine nodded, and set to charging up a healing spell for the others. I dug into my pack for an apple gel, choked it down, and sighed as the wounds scabbed over and blood stopped dripping into my eye. Thus revived, I charged back into the battle to get the bastard back for what he'd done.

_Theses clothes are brand new, and they already look like they've been through an avalanche, dammit!_

"Guys! Try and cage him in!" I yelled out, ducking under the giant blade-leg thing swung my way, and striking out at Windmaster. He howled as my dagger carved a line in his arm, and then I found myself narrowly ducking another blade swipe. "That way he won't be able to cast any spells!"

"Since when did you get so smart?" Genis asked, smacking our adversary in the eye. I slid around behind the purple demon and ripped my dagger through one of his wing membranes.

"Since I've killed this guy twice already!"

"How the hell did you do that?" Lloyd hollered, blocking swipes from the Windmaster before Tempesting himself over the creature, twin blades cutting deep gashes in both his shoulders. Blackish-purple blood spurted out at us, coating the surrounding stone. I got a load of it all over my pant leg, and grimaced in disgust, looking down at the sight. During that time was when I noticed that the bloodstained stone was smoking slightly. _Shit! Acid blood!_

"Never mind that! Stay away from the blood, its acidic!" Sharp pain bit into my leg as the acid-soaked fabric came into contact with my skin. Judging from appearances, the blood wasn't bad enough to melt stuff, but _damn could it sting!_

_"First Aid!"_

Healing green light bathed the affected area of my leg, and I sighed in relief, looking around for my benefactor. I was just in time to see Kratos get out of spellcasting mode and whack the Windmaster with a Double Demon Fang. "Thanks!" I yelled over at him, and then shot forward at the demon's exposed lower torso, Hydra Dagger perfectly aligned. "Sonic Thrus-"

Note to self: Never yell attacks that loudly. Your opponent will hear them.

Windmaster spun around, an evil light in his little eyes. Suddenly, he _cartwheeled_ towards me. There's no other way to describe it, the stupid demon flipped head over blade and brought the giant sharp thing down right at my head. Positioned as I was, I really couldn't block it.

_AHHH! FUCK!_

"POW BLADE!" Holy crap, it was Lloyd to the rescue with...toy hammers? If the situation hadn't been so dire I probably would have burst out laughing. As it was, I still had to let a weak chuckle escape as Lloyd slammed Windmaster upside the head with the hammers, and then brought the attack to a close with a long slash clear down his middle, starting from the exposed throat all the way down to the bladed torso.

Then it hit me. _Wow, Lloyd and Colette gutted that thing like a fish! Never make them mad..._

Howling with pain and curses, the Windmaster tried to close up its gaping insides, failed miserably, and disintegrated into the stone dais, dead. Left behind on the bloodstained ground was a talisman and a stone tablet. The tablet, I knew without looking, was a map to the Balacruf Mausoleum, the _true_ location of the Wind Seal. And the talisman...eh. Piece of junk. I still picked it up and tucked it inside my vest anyway.

"Are you okay?" Colette hovered over to me and willed her wings in. "He didn't hurt you, did he?" I looked myself over, and then laughed. At least this outcome was less painful then when I fought Iubaris...

"Hmm. Well, considering the fact that he threw me across the altar, drenched me in his acid blood and tried to slice me into salami, I seem to be okay." I observed. In fact, the cuts on my arm from earlier were gone, nothing more than faint scars, and my head wound seemed to be completely gone. However, my leg still seemed to be a bit sore...and stiff. That acid stuff sure was tenacious... "Still, I probably would have died again had you and Lloyd not appeared to save my butt again, Colette." She giggled.

"Glad I could help!"

"Either I have nine lives or a guardian angel." I grinned, dusting my pants off. "Colette, I'm going to take you _everywhere_ with me now. Or else I'm going to die otherwise!" We laughed together, oblivious to the people yelling at us and cursing us for killing their "Summon Spirit of Wind."

Apparently the townspeople were too dumb to note that that _thing_ had been an imprisoned demon…

----------

Later that evening, we relaxed at the Windmill Inn. Raine had gone off with Linar to decipher the tablet (which was a total waste of time, seeing as I knew where the seal was). I'd briefly considered telling Raine that I knew what the tablet meant, but the kinder side of me won over. Why deny the Professor a chance to study one of her precious ruins? I'm not _that_ cruel.

Sighing, I stretched out on one of the four beds in the room. My bed was in an upper loft, along with Colette's. Lloyd and Genis had the bottom beds, and Kratos was _supposed_ to have the floor...seeing as he didn't sleep, that was rather pointless. Raine was sleeping over at Linar and Aisha's house for tonight.

Closing my eyes, I heard light footsteps and the creak of leather. I didn't bother to open my eyes, I knew precisely who it was. "If you've come to rub the facts in my face, go away." I muttered, trying to get comfy on the layers of somewhat scratchy sheets and semilumpy pillows provided by the inn. I got a tired, 'I-don't-have-time-to-deal-with-sarcastic-teenagers' sigh in return.

"I am _not_ here to 'rub facts in your face', as you put it. Why did you not tell Professor Sage the location of the seal?"

"And deny her a chance to study that tablet? I'm not that cruel, Kratos. And I'm not going to spill the location of every seal just to speed up this little journey." Cracking an eye open, I observed the Seraph brooding against a far wall near the stairs, arms crossed and scowling as always. That was Kratos, cute even when he's mad.

"Hmph. Do you not want to go home?" That question took me a little off guard, and it took a moment for the words to sink in.

"Why would I _want_ to go home?" Now it was Kratos' turn to look surprised.

"Don't you miss your family?"

"Nope." Sighing, I sat up and yanked out my ponytail, running my fingers through my hair a few times before putting it back in it's former arrangement. "Look, I know that you of all people appreciate what it's like to have family the most, and I understand that. But, I don't _like_ my parents _or_ my brother. Hell, being here is like a dream come true for me and I'm going to drag it out as long as I want to." I paused for a breath, and to let Kratos absorb all that information.

"...what makes this place so much better than your home?" He asked finally, a hint of confusion creeping into his voice. "What is so appealing?"

"Well..." I paused a moment to think about it and tally up my reasons. No parents nagging me to get off the computer and get outdoors or make friends, no idiot little brother scorning all my hobbies and calling them a waste of life. Nobody making fun of me or playing pranks on me. Staying here was like starting my life all over again. "...let's just say that it's a very long list, Kratos."

The door below slammed suddenly, and Lloyd walked in with Colette and Genis. "Hey guys," he called cheerfully, "What's up?"

"Oh, not too much," I replied dryly. "Just discussing stuff with Kratty..."

Wow, I'm going to call him that every morning. The embarrassed blush/frosty death glare combo is priceless. I shoved down a growing urge to severely glomp Kratos...

"..yes. I was just remarking on how her skills with the blade have improved..." Kratos slowly regained his normal emotionless mercenary self. "I told you that fighting that demon would do you good."

_DAMN IT KRATOS! WHY DID YOU HAVE TO SAY THAT!_

"Wait a minute...you _knew_ that demon was up there!" Genis yelled up at Kratos, practically spitting. From my overhead view, he kinda looked like a little white cat. Mwahaha...

"Erm, no. That would have been me who told him." I admitted, sticking my head over the banister for a better view. "Guilty as charged..." If Genis' kendama had a range of fifteen feet, I had no doubts that I'd be eating spiky paddle ball right now. Eep.

"Why didn't you warn us, then?" Genis called back, straining forward as Lloyd put a hand on his shoulder to hold him back. Sheesh, why was the little guy getting so worked up?

"It's called plot elements. I'll tell you stuff, never fear, but it's on a _need-to-know_ basis." I replied, silently wondering to myself how the hell I was going to get out of this one. "Like where the spike traps are in the Balacruf Mausoleum."

_Ah, shit. Open mouth, insert foot. Inhale deeply._

"Why would we want to go to the Balacruf Mausoleum?" Lloyd asked suspiciously. Inwardly sweating, I shrugged.

"It's just an example, Lloyd. Don't worry about it."

"Oh. Okay." Just like that, I was off the hook. Oh, thank Martel that Lloyd was a great blithering idiot! _Well, I take that back. He's not that big an idiot..._

Some very soft chuckling from near the wall brought me back to the present, and sparked the beginnings of my temper. "Did you enjoy that?" I hissed under my breath, so soft only he would be sure to hear it. Kratos didn't reply as he went down the stairs, but I was ready to swear that he was laughing at my pathetic excuses.

_Just for that, you'll be seeing tomatoes first thing tomorrow, pal..._


	5. On the road again

I hid behind Lloyd and Colette all the way to Linar's house. It seemed that Kratty didn't appreciate the lovely drawing of a tomato that I did on his shield...it was even stained with tomato juice for authentic look and smell! That didn't stop him from nearly taking my head off with a well-placed sword swipe.

And now, even as we walked along in what should have been relative safety to pick up Raine, my sense of impending doom wouldn't go away. I just _knew_ that Kratos had some evil trick up his sleeve that he would pay me back with...once he found my weakness. That was my only advantage against him, I knew all his weaknesses.

"Professor! Hey, did you figure out the tablet?" Lloyd asked as we encountered Raine and Linar out front in the yard, waiting for us. She nodded, holding up the stone slab.

"Yes! It's a map to the _real_ wind seal." Raine grinned, hugging the map to her chest. "And it was a positively fabulous artifact to decode!" Lloyd and Genis sweatdropped.

"That's great, Professor..." From my place next to Lloyd, I stuck my tongue out at Kratos with a smirk. The meaning was clear- _See? I was right. Never deny the Professor her happiness!_

Kratos' stare grew darker. _Don't dig your grave any deeper than it already is_, that was his message. Hey, wow! I was talking to Kratty without actually talking! That was cool.

"Emily? Kratos? Why are you guys staring at each other?"

_Ah, crap. Lloyd._ "Hunh? I'm not staring at him." I shook my head and pointed to some nonexistent feature off in the distance. "I was just looking at that cloud formation over there. Doesn't it look like Noishe?"

"Hey, you're right! It does look like Noishe!" Whew. Saved again by Lloyd's stupidity.

"If you're done staring at the sky, we should go." _Kratos, you mood-killer! Why do you always have to do that?_ "Professor Sage, what is the location of the next seal?"

"It's in the Balacruf Mausoleum!" Raine announced jubilantly, going into ruin mode again. "I can't wait to study it!" Lloyd and I shook our heads, while Genis sighed, somewhat used to his sister's mood swings. Colette started off after Kratos and tripped over a rock. Gee, that was typical. Summoning Noishe to me, I climbed on board the protozoan and we set off after the others, out of Asgard and onto the plains.

----------

"You _knew_ about the wind seal."

I froze in terror on Noishe's back as the protozoan padded along. Beside us was Genis, and he didn't look too happy. Looking down, I gulped. Genis was loads smarter than Lloyd, so I couldn't lie to him. But I also couldn't reveal the whole plot to him, either.

_Goddess-dammit, this is just NOT my day..._

"Yes, I knew about the seal." I muttered, trying to keep my voice down low. I didn't want Kratos hearing, or he might be forced to incapacitate Genis. And like HELL did I want that. "I know where all of them are. But I can't just tell where their locations are."

"And why not?" Genis said angrily, resembling an angry kitten again. "You could make our journey so much easier!"

"I know that, Genis." I sighed, slumping on Noishe's neck, suddenly drained of energy. I was tired of having to explain the same things over and over again, trying to think up versions that would make people happy without getting suspicious...and my poor brain was running dry. How much longer would it be before I contradicted myself, and the truth came clean? "But...you know what a catalyst is, right?"

"Of course! It's used in chemical reactions to speed up the process without directly affecting the end result." Genis replied.

"Right. Now, I'm kind of like a catalyst for this whole journey. I can make this easy, but I can't directly affect what happens next. Get my drift?"

"...oh!" Genis gasped, the whole scheme of things suddenly clicking for him. "I see. Alright then." he said, chuckling slightly. "Sorry I thought you were holding out on us."

"No harm done." I replied, feigning cheerfulness as the little halfy scurried off to rejoin his sister. Noishe whined beneath me, and I scratched his ears, sighing sadly. I hadn't exactly _lied_ to Genis, but...I didn't like the fact that I couldn't tell them that what they were doing would put everyone in danger. Colette reduced to a mindless zombie, Kratos rejoining Cruxis, having to awaken all the Summon Spirits, and then the giant tree...

"Is the pressure getting to you yet?"

"Shut up Kratos." I muttered into Noishe's neck fur. Everybody's favorite purple-clad mercenary had dropped back to mess with my head again, and I didn't feel like dueling with words at the moment. "Go away and leave me alone."

"That's not like you." Kratos said, a tinge of natural evilness creeping into his voice. "I distinctly heard you muttering about something last night in your sleep... Having nightmares now?" I chuckled, despite myself. Yes, I'd dreamed I'd glomped Kratty for revenge...hello. Revenge!

"Do you even want to know what I was dreaming about?" I asked, sitting up and eyeing the Seraph next to me with new interest. Heck, this might actually _work..._ Kratos looked at me warily, perhaps sensing the trap I was laying at the moment.

"...What was it?" I grinned evilly, and that's when Kratos knew he was doomed.

"BRACE YOURSELF, KRATOS!"

Lloyd, Genis, Colette, and Raine all jumped a few inches in the air at my yell, and turned just in time to see me leap off of Noishe onto Kratos. The poor guy tried to run, but the force of my leap pushed him over, and..well...let's just say I was suddenly in heaven.

Kratos went stiff as a board and redder than his hair as I happily squeezed the air out of him, grinning madly. Now, _this_ was something I'd dreamed about ever since I first played _Tales of Symphonia_...

"Oh my goddess..." Looking up, I saw the others standing there with their mouths hanging wide open, and I burst out laughing. For the first time since I'd got in this game, I was really _happy_ to be here...

Kratos took advantage of my laughing spree to shove me off him and scramble to his feet, panting in shock. He was still bright red, and apparently shaking. Dammit, but I wished I had a camera! "Wh-what in Martel's name was _that_?" he gasped, edging away towards the back of the group to safety. Wiping tears from my eyes, I sat up grinning evilly.

"That, Kratos, was my patented glomp-tackle in it's first successful trial run! And what I was dreaming about last night." I froze for a moment as a thought struck me, and then, well...my ego took over.

"HAHA! I ACTUALLY GLOMPED KRATOS! TAKE THAT, ALL YOU OTHER FANS OUT THERE! Man, I can't wait tell Libby and Davinia...they'll kill me! Mwahahaha..."

Suffice to say, nobody wanted to come near me for the rest of the afternoon.

----------

That evening found us in front of the Balacruf Mausoleum, tired and hungry. Well, all but me. Glomping Kratos had apparently become my energy source for the day...but dinner sounded good too.

"...it's settled then. We'll rest here and break the seal in the morning." Sensible Raine stated, and then she was off to examine the giant tomb.

"Aww, Raine.." Genis sighed, looking around for something we could use as firewood. He found a few dried-up vines instead. "Something tells me dinner'll be cold tonight..."

I slid off Noishe and slowly walked over to Lloyd and Kratos, who getting ready to do their nightly sparring match. I didn't want to scare them, namely because I suspected that Kratos was still traumatized from the glomp-tackle and that he'd also warned Lloyd that he could be my next target. If he had, he'd be right about that one. I was going to glomp Lloyd even if it killed me. But that was another subject for another time.

"Hey guys! Can I join you?" Sheesh, you'd think I'd turned into an Exbelua or something, the way those two jumped and stared at me. Frowning, I drew my dagger and flashed it so that the blade caught the light. "What's wrong? I still haven't got the hang of the Demon Fang yet, guys..." Kratos seemed to settle down at that, and slip back into professional-mercenary mode.

"Right. You spar with Lloyd for a bit, while I try to remember where we left off last time..."


	6. The Wind Seal and Iapyx

I was up early the next morning, going around poking everyone awake. For once, it felt nice to be the one annoying the heck out of everyone. Not to mention Noishe had dared me to.

_"...eh? What is it, Noishe?" The green and white protozoan whined several times, then mimed sleeping, rolling over on his back and shutting his eyes. I blinked. "Do you think I should go to sleep now?"_

_"Whine!" Noishe then rolled over and mimed poking something. Unconsciously, I copied him, poking the air in attempts to figure out his message._

_"Poking something..." A growl. "No, someone...sleeping?" Noishe barked and wagged his tail, repeating his previous actions. "Noishe, I'm not going to go around poking them now. Maybe later."_

_"Bark!" Noishe drew a circle on the ground with one of his paws, and then added little lines radiating off it. He then pointed at the sky. I looked down at the shape, then at the night sky, then at Noishe._

_"Silly dog, the moon doesn't have rays..." Noishe whined and put his paws over his eyes, frustrated. Sighing, I tried again to put together what the arshis was telling me. "Poking someone sleeping...full moon?" Another growl. Noishe gave me a hopeless look, then pointed to the fire, and then to the circle. Looking down again at it, the message clicked. "Poking someone awake in the morning?"_

_"Bark bark! Woof! Whine." The protozoan got to his feet and yipped happily, tail wagging. I chuckled, and rubbed Noishe's chest. _

_"Interesting idea, but...I'm not going to run the risk of getting killed..." Noishe snorted, and gave me a strange look with his little black eyes. It seemed to say 'What? Scared of a couple half-asleep idiots?' I sweatdropped. "Noishe..."_

_Sighing, he once more drew something in the dirt. Squinting in the dim light of the fire, I made out X-R-I-E E-Y. "What the heck, Noishe?" The protozoan whined again._

_About that time, Kratos came over looking for his customary pillow. He almost stepped on the words Noishe had written, but stopped abruptly when I yelled and Noishe snapped at him._

_"Noishe! What is with you?" Kratos exclaimed, quickly stepping out of range of the bared fangs. "You've never been so violent towards me..."_

_"Sorry Kratos, but you almost stepped on his message." I said, shoving back at the big dog as Noishe slowly calmed. "What does that mean?" Kratos looked at the rough words on the ground._

_"_Xrie ey_? Noishe..." Kratos looked the arshis square in the eyes. "What are you up to?" Noishe whined innocently._

_"Hello, Kratos...what's it mean?"_

_"_Xrie ey_...it means 'Dare you' in angelic." I glanced up at Noishe and gave him a dirty look. _

_"Damn you, mutt...you can't put it in English, you just have to spell it out in angelic..."_

And so here I was, poking my victims awake. Well, all except for Kratos, who didn't need sleep anyway and who'd made Noishe tell him what was going on. Colette went first. After three well-placed pokes in ticklish spots, she woke up laughing.

"What's going on?" she asked, once she'd quit giggling and taken stock of her surroundings. I shrugged.

"You could call it a dare." I supposed, and moved on to Raine. After a few very soft pokes I leaned over and yelled into her ear, "RAINE! I FOUND A 4,000 YEAR OLD ROCK WITH MARKS IN IT!" She popped up faster then I'd ever thought for a human (but then again, she _was_ a halfy...) and grabbed the front of my shirt.

"WHERE'S THE ROCK? I MUST STUDY IT!" Damn, now the Professor was hyper. _And_ she was strangling me with her death-grip on my shirt.

"There is...no rock...Professor...air...!" Raine released my shirt and sat back yawning sleepily as I massaged my throat. "Sheesh, are you always like that in the morning?"

"Why are you waking us up so early, anyway?" Raine muttered, rubbing her eyes. I sighed as I moved on to Genis.

"It's kinda complicated...let's just say it involves the rules behind angelic dares..." From off on the sidelines near a fallen stone pillar, Kratos smirked and Noishe barked evilly.

Anyway, on to Genis. I gave him a few hard pokes in the stomach and he popped right up. "Hey! Stop that!"

"Yeek!" I ducked away from the spiked end of his kendama to cower behind a still-sleepy Raine. Martel, but the kid was grumpy in the morning...anywho, that just left Lloyd as my last victim. Sighing, I walked over to the red-clad swordsman and picked up a water flask, remembering Kratos' words from our first encounter.

_"Kratos, don't. I'll yell for Lloyd, I swear I will."_

_"Go ahead. He sleeps like a log."_

"Sleeps like a log, eh?" I muttered to myself. Leaning down, I gently poked Lloyd in the chest, and then kicked him in the side. When that didn't work, I took the contents of the water flask and poured it down his nose. Now _that_ worked as an effective wakeup call.

"ACKPTH!" Lloyd shot up, coughing and sputtering as he tried to clear the water from his nose. Covering my mouth, I tried to muffle my giggling, but it didn't work. Not to mention the others were laughing too. Looking around, Lloyd decided to settle the blame on the most obvious cause of his distress- me. "Hey! What the hell was that for!"

"Lloyd...sorry..." I grinned. "But, if you want someone to blame..." I pointed over at Noishe, who was doing a dog version of laughing. "Go for him. He dared me to do it."

"What? Noishe!" The protozoan's ears shot up in alarm as Lloyd came charging over. Yelping, the big mutt took off with a certain someone hot on his rear, while Kratos merely watched with something akin to amusement. All in all, it was an extremely entertaining morning.

_Roughly 30 minutes later..._

The campsite was cleaned up, and we all trudged up the steps to a smallish altar in the middle of a walkway. Someone pointed out the slit in the stone (I forget who...I just know that it wasn't me) that was for the map. Raine stuck it in, an oracle stone came up, Colette stuck her hand on it...and a section of the wall in front of us rolled away. While the others oohed and aahed over it, I went right through the door into a dark and rather drafty stone hallway. The Wind Seal was one of those things that tended to grate on your nerves after a bit, and I just wanted to get it over with.

"Wow, it sure is windy in here." Lloyd commented as he stepped inside, followed by the others. I sighed.

"Well, that would be a given, Lloyd. The Fire Seal was hot, and the Light Seal dealt with a lot of sunlight...and now the Wind Seal is windy. How about that!" Rawr, sarcasm. I think I scared them all with it. "Anyway, I will now be your own personal tourguide for this giant royal tomb, so listen up and you might not get sporked on a spike trap or ten."

"Sporked?" Lloyd asked, confused.

"Spike traps?" Genis shivered, looking nervous.

"Yay! We get our own tourguide!" Colette grinned happily. The blonde may have been a fighter who'd saved my ass on more than one occasion, but methinks she was still an airhead at heart. Moving on...

"How do you know the layout of this place?" Raine asked, curious. I shrugged. A little bit of truth right now couldn't hurt.

"I've been in here quite a bit, actually...we're supposed to light torches so we can read the plaques, _buuuut_ that's just too much of a hassle for me. Since I know what all the damn things say, we can just proceed right to the seal room." Everybody looked relieved but Genis.

"Do we still have to go through the spike traps?" He asked, sounding nervous. I nodded cheerfully.

"Yup, sure do! Don't worry though," I added, patting the little mage on the head. "You're short enough that you should be able to duck under most of them."

"Oh, good- wait a minute! I am NOT short! Hey!" Genis yelled after me, but I was already quickly jogging down the hall with my dagger out. Once we went through a first hall of spike traps, monsters lurked directly beyond...

It took a few minutes for everyone to inch their way through the twin spike traps that popped randomly out of the walls. I, myself, just got down on the floor and crawled, snickering every so often as I heard someone yelping behind me after nearly being impaled by the sharp things. Genis walked under the traps, Raine and Kratos had to duck... Colette flew over 'em, and Lloyd was an idiot who insisted on dashing straight through. No such luck.

"You're a moron, y'know that?" I growled at him after waiting five minutes with the rest of the group as Lloyd emerged from the hallway, panting and covered with scratches. "I tell you to _duck_, and what do you do? Ask where the stupid feathered things are! Goddess Lloyd, who'd you get your _brains_ from!" He paused a moment, apparently thinking.

"I dunno. I think my dad..."

From somewhere behind me I think Kratos had a heart attack, managing to cover it up with a coughing fit. "Mr. Kratos, are you alright?" Colette asked innocently.

"I'm fine...just fine...dust in the air." Kratos muttered, shaking his head and stalking off, rounding a corner to head up some stairs. I let him go. Doubtless he'd been in here more times then I had, not to mention if he got attacked he could kick ass and run. Still, the others stared after him.

"What's eating him?" Lloyd asked. I growled silently, cursing. Martel, Kratos would give his whole facade away before we even got to Disc Two! Oh well, time to cover up as best I could.

"You heard him," I replied, reaching over to grab the ribbons on the back of Lloyd's shirt and drag him along. "He's got dust allergies. Now let's _go_ already." With Lloyd squawking his protests and the others sweatdropping, we followed Kratos up the steps to the second level.

Up here we encountered a squadron of three Gold Skeletons. It was a simple matter to dissect them: Lloyd just smacked into them with a newly-acquired Beast attack and shattered their bones all over the place. Then Genis and Kratos cast stuff like Wind Blade to further scatter and destroy the bones, while I ran around stabbing the skulls lying on the floor. I did save a few choice rib bones to tuck into my pack for Noishe, though. The mutt deserved a reward for carting me around all over Sylvarant. Once that was done, we grabbed whatever spoils we could (Mmm, green quartz. Tastes yummy in stew, really) and moved on down the hall.

Here we encountered a lighted torch and plaque, which Raine _obviously_ had to read and study and get all nuts over. Sighing, the three guys dragged her off the wall, under a spike trap, and down the hall past another one of those pesky traps. Geez, the rulers of the Balacruf Dynasty must have been paranoid or something, what with all the traps in their tomb. It was rather freaky. Anyway, we then encountered a door in the wall, shut tight and unbudgable.

"Great, now we're stuck." Lloyd muttered bitterly as he shoved at the door. Reaching over, I grabbed the Sorcerer's Ring and proceeded to light the two torches on either side of the door. Grating heavily, it slid open amongst Raine's delighted squeals and the others with their muted exclamations. Grinning evilly, I returned the ring to Lloyd.

"See? We ain't stuck anymore." He took the ring, still somewhat amazed and no doubt wondering how the heck the door opened.

"Well, let's go!" Genis said, starting up the stairs. I shook my head.

"Hang on, short stuff. We need to change the function of the Ring first, there's a wind puzzle at the top." I pointed out, dragging Lloyd down some stairs as he tried to free himself from my grip. Whoever made Lloyd's outfit had now earned themselves a gigantic hug, those white ribbons were _damn_ useful in dragging the poor guy from place to place. Mwahahaha.

"I'm not short! Stop calling me that!" Genis fumed, following after his sister, Kratos, and Colette down the stairs. I, meanwhile, had succeeded in dragging the future Eternal Swordsman down and over to the Sorcerer's Ring device, where I finally released him.

"You've got to stop doing that," Lloyd muttered, rubbing his neck. "You're going to kill me someday."

"If I do, it'll be by accident and then I'll commit _hara kiri _afterwards, okie?" I replied, half-serious. "Now change the stupid ring so we can kill Iapyx."

"Kill _who_?" Raine asked, going into fanatical ruin-mode. "Is he the guardian here? What's his weakness? Do you have a strategy?" I shrank back against the wall, overwhelmed.

"Geez...in order, yes he is, he doesn't have one, and yes I do. Some space please, Professor?" Raine stepped back, looking a little disappointed that she couldn't get any more information. Huffing a sigh, I jumped when a blast of air hit the back of my neck. "EEP!"

"Hahaha! That's for pulling me around by the neck!" Lloyd laughed evilly, holding up the Sorcerer's Ring. Turning, I glared daggers.

"You're lucky my skills haven't improved too much, you-"

"If we've accomplished our goal for this part of the temple, shall we go?" Kratos asked, breaking into our little altercation. "I do not believe we have all day to mess around in here."

"He's right. Come on, let's go." Raine said, grabbing Lloyd and shepherding Genis and Colette in front of her.

"Professor! Not you too..." Lloyd moaned as he was once more dragged along by his ribbons. "I swear I'm going to cut these off..."

"Mmhm. Good luck with that." I snickered, ducking past the Professor and Kratos to bound up the stairs into the next room.

Stepping into the next room, I automatically groaned. I hated this puzzle more than _anything_ in Symphonia, even Zelos Wilder. (That in itself was a scary thought.) In the middle of the room were five pinwheels, which had to be blown in a certain order for the door leading up to the altar to open. Usually, I could never get past this without my trusty guide, but this time...maybe I could remember it...? If not, we were sunk, and we'd have to go around lighting all those torches to read the stupid plaques again and then try to figure out the riddle. Angst.

"Having trouble?" Raine stepped up beside me to examine the pinwheels. I sighed, shook my head, and then started pacing the room.

"Trouble? Oh, no, it'll come to me in a minute or so...I think..."

Pace, pace, pace.

_Red, green, yellow, white, blue? No, I think that leads to a chest..._

Pace, pace, pace.

_Blue, red, yellow, white, green? Ack, that's not it either...that just leads to another chest..._

Pace, pace, pace.

_Dammit, why can't I remember this! Maybe I should try shooting the pinwheels in color order...color order? _

"...I think I've got it!" I exclaimed, halting on the spot and spinning around to point at Lloyd. "Shoot the pinwheels in this order- red, yellow, green, white, and then blue!"

"Are you sure that's right?" Raine asked, ever-skeptical. "Maybe we should go back and read those plaques just to make sure..."

"Oh, c'mon Professor. Emily's been right about everything so far, I don't think she'd screw us up now." Lloyd countered, and set to blowing the pinwheels with the Sorcerer's Ring while I stood by and bit my nails nervously. "Besides, you probably just want to study those plaques anyway."

_Man, I sure hope you're right about that, Lloyd...I really do..._

"..Green..." _Whish!_ "..White.." _Woosh! _"..and then blue." _Swash!_ Lloyd blew a last puff of air with the Ring and then stepped back to admire his work. The five pinwheels spun wildly for a moment...and nothing happened.

"Damn. I didn't remember it correctly." I hissed, lightly smacking my head against the wall. So absorbed in my agony was I, I didn't notice the door in the back of the wall slide open. That is, until Colette started yelling at me from the stairwell.

"Emily! C'mon! The door's open!"

"It is?" I jerked my head up lightning-fast and stared in disbelief at the passage. _I remembered the combination **without** my notes..._ "YES! I REMEMBERED THE COMBINATION WITHOUT MY NOTES!" I shrieked, jumping around the room for joy. However, my personal breakthrough didn't last long as a sudden feeling of being alone swept over me, and I dashed up the stairwell to join the others in facing Iapyx.

Thankfully, they were waiting for me at the top of the steps, not quite to the altar. "What were you yelling about down there?" Lloyd asked, confused. "Did something attack?"

"Hunh? Oh, no, nothing like that." I said, embarrassed. "I...just yell stuff...when I'm really happy..."

"Oh..."

"Moving on to our next subject, how should we go about defeating this guardian?" Raine asked, suddenly reminding me very strongly of an army commander. Frowning, I decided to fall back on old tactics for the time being.

"Well, you all should find this pretty simple to execute." I said, pointing fingers at everybody except Lloyd and Raine. "You guys, stay in the back and cast spells. Lotsa spells. Love the earth spells. Kratos, you also have to heal. Make that your top priority. Raine," My eyes turned to her. "You also have to make healing your main objective." She nodded.

"When isn't it? Don't worry, I'll keep you all in shape."

"Goodie." I turned to Lloyd. "As for you and me, our part is simple. While the others are in the back casting and whatnot, we get to run up and try to beat the snot out of Iapyx. Got it?" Lloyd frowned.

"I think so. We just go up and hit him, right?"

"That's the ticket." I grinned, faking cheerfulness as I clapped him on the shoulder and then exited out the stairs onto the top of the Balacruf Mausoleum.

The wind all but slapped me in the face as I stepped out and started walking towards the altar, shaking. I didn't _want_ to be in the front lines pounding on this boss, my feeble little brain couldn't comprehend the terror. My teeth started chattering as we got closer to the dreaded altar, and my hand shook as I reached for my dagger.

"Hey, are you cold?" Genis asked, giving me a strange look. I nodded.

"Yeah, a little... Don't worry, I'll warm up when the fight starts. Remember Genis, _earth_ spells."

"I know, I know..." The little halfy scowled, turning away and pulling out his kendama, absently playing with it. I sighed, hugged myself once in an effort to stop shaking, and then turned my attention back to the altar, which by now had a weird glow coming from it. That meant trouble...

"I sense mana...powerful mana is coming out!" Yay, Genis. Tell us all something we _don't_ know, eh?

I may have been mildly prepared, but this was nothing like the game. There was a loud screech, and then Iapyx appeared in a gust of wind, striking out at those nearest him with his talons. Lloyd and I quickly shielded ourselves, while the others ran for cover in the back of the line. So far, this was going well.

"Lloyd, Beast is a good idea. Spam it!" I yelled over at him, ducking a swipe from the birdlike guardian and managing to score a hit on one of his legs. It was only a scratch, however, and Iapyx didn't seem to be affected in the least. Screeching, he flapped his wings hard and rained razor-edged feathers down on us. _Crap! Feather Shoot!_ I blocked as best I could with my dagger, trying to protect my head. Seconds later, my forearms were scored with numerous thin cuts, like papercuts to the extreme. A stray feather also got under my guard and sliced across my right cheek, causing blood to drip down my face. That was pleasant.

"BEAST!" Lloyd slammed into Iapyx as he started to charge up a spell, knocking the green bird over onto the ground. He lay there stunned for a moment, and Lloyd started to carve up the giant bird like no tomorrow, going for his head and chest. Wiping off some blood, I ran over and managed to stab the guardian a few times in his wing before one of those beady yellow eyes popped open and Iapyx squawked, thrusting outwards with his injured wings. Lloyd and I were both thrust back, he falling on the ground and me with the breath knocked out of me. As the avian guardian shakily regained his feet, a cry rang out from the back lines. Actually, make that two cries.

"Stalagmite!"

"_Angel Feathers!_"

A whirlwind of pinkish feathery halos rushed past us, striking Iapyx upside the head and slicing through his feathers, making him resemble a half-plucked turkey. Almost directly in conjunction to Colette's attack, seconds later hundreds of rock spires erupted from underneath the turkey, jabbing him and throwing him into the air.

As Iapyx came down, Lloyd dashed up and slashed down at the falling guardian, slamming into him with his attack. "TIGER BLADE!" The result was a giant gaping wound in the avian's side, spurting out blood and covering the twin-bladed swordsman with it. Iapyx screeched and lashed out with his razor feathers, but it wasn't much use against the tough leather armor.

"Stone Blast!" Kratos' spell jolted the guardian back up into the air just as he touched the ground, and the giant green bird screamed, clearly dying. Drenched in blood and barely managing to stay aloft on his ravaged wings, Iapyx didn't look quite so threatening anymore. Recovering my Hydra Dagger and wiping some blood from the cut on my face, I charged the avian and ducked a weak swipe from his talons. Taking aim, I moved under his guard and stabbed the dagger up under one of his wing joints before ripping it all down the length of his side, the sharp crystal blade easily slicing through layers of muscle and feathers.

Iapyx screeched weakly and lurched forward towards the ground, having lost control of one of his wings. As Lloyd hacked and slashed away at the guardian's back half, Kratos suddenly dashed up and brought his sword down right on the turkey's head, cleaving it in two. Iapyx now was clearly dead, with his brains scattered all over the stone floor and blood all over our clothing, except for the spellcasters who'd stayed safe and clean in the back of the line. Noting the gore I was covered in, I suddenly grimaced- a bath was now an order. _Immediately._

While the others grabbed whatever goods they could scavenge from the fading guardian's corpse, I cleaned my dagger on a patch of feathers and put it away, before finding a path of clean ground to sit down and wipe some more dried blood off my face. As my arm pulled away, I frowned. There was a strange whitish tinge to my skin, visible even through the blood from the wounds on my arms.

_Could it be?_ I wondered to myself, further examining my arms. _So much blood loss...by all accounts I should be unconscious by now. Why haven't I-_

A sudden sharp twinge in my chest made me look down, and my eyes widened. The Demon's Heart was throbbing hard and visibly, I could actually see it pulsating against my skin, just like a miniature heart. The sight was revolting; I turned away as fast as I could and closed my eyes. Still, I could feel it, sucking strength from my body just to keep me alive and conscious. _Though, what happens when I run out of energy?_ Blinking, I panted weakly and called for Raine.

"I'm coming! Goodness, what-" Raine stared at my abnormally pale complexion, and immediately started charging up a strong First Aid spell. I was zapped twice in quick succession, and then made to swallow an apple gel. That was thoroughly disgusting.

During that time, Remiel came down and gave Colette her angelic power boost (I saw this and felt like making Remiel eat his hat. Dammit, the Tower of Salvation couldn't come fast enough!), much to everyone's delight. Afterwards, I was able to get up with Raine's help and file down the stairs with the rest of them out of the tomb. I sighed, plodding along with a sense of dread as we ducked the spike traps and came down into the front hall. The minute we got outside, Colette would-

"HALT!"

I froze, barely unable to believe my ears. _What_ in the name of _Nebilim_ was _she_ doing _here!_ This was the hard path, dammit! Sheena wasn't supposed to jump you in the Wind Temple! Turning, I gulped as I recognized the familiar purple-clad form of the ninja assassin in the hallway behind us, with little paper cards out and everything. Damn, but she really _was_ out to kill you in the game. I suddenly wished I had a lawyer, I'd sue just to get out of this whole mess.

"You, Chosen of Mana! Pre-" I stepped forward towards Sheena with my hands up, and cut her off halfway in her little rant.

"Hello Sheena. Yes, I know," I sighed, smirking slightly at the look of shock on her face. "Stupid Chosen, prepare to die, I shall now fight you and give you paper cuts with my evil magic notecards-" I got a growl for that. Wow, she seemed to be rather protective of her little magic bookmarks. "However, I ain't fighting this one, sorry, so could you like, go away and fight us tomorrow or something?" Methinks I just broke the Guinness World Record for Receiving The Most Stares In An Unusual Circumstance. Sheena stared at me, my companions stared at me, and I had the feeling that even my own consciousness was doing some heavy-duty death glares. Dammit, it would be nice to learn when to keep my mouth shut... Though I suspected that was a talent I didn't get from my parents. Must not run in the family.

"Whaddya mean you're not fighting this one?" Lloyd yelled from the back of the line, roughly around the same time Sheena recovered from her initial shock and charged, yelling her usual battle cry.

"Prepare to die!" Dude, if I was going to prepare to die then I wouldn't _be_ here. Stepping to the side, I ducked and stuck my foot out- and Sheena actually _fell_ over it. Ohmigosh. The hallway suddenly got very quiet, it seemed like even the wind had stopped blowing.

Blinking in surprise that my trick had actually _worked_, I snapped out of it and quickly stepped on Sheena's back, planting one foot firmly at the base of her neck. At the same time, I reached for my dagger and carefully placed it near her throat. "So, ya gonna give up and go away, or do I have to incapacitate you?"

"Mmmphsoihoit!" Sheena yelled something into the floor, and it didn't sound very nice. Frowning, I felt my Heart give a little twinge as it detected another source of mana approaching. A powerful source. Looking over my shoulder, I felt my eyes shrink to the size of pinpricks as a guardian demon glared down at me, flexing its talons.

"Oh, _shit..._"

_WHACK!_ Next thing I knew, I was flying into the wall as the demon backhanded me off Sheena, rather hard. My back slammed into the stone, and I hit my head in the process before slumping down to the ground, dazed and totally out of it. My Hydra Dagger had gone skittering off somewhere in the process, leaving me defenseless and unable to do anything but watch the fuzzy scene before me, in which the party went ahead and started to beat the crap out of Sheena and that damn guardian. I watched spells, weapons, and people fly, thinking fuzzily for a moment that I was back home watching this all unfold on the TV, only that the focus was bad and the whole thing was sideways. That is, until Lloyd hit the wall beside me with a yelp. He got up saying some things I was _sure_ Dirk didn't teach him, recollected his swords and went back to pounding on Sheena and her magic fortune cookie papers.

Sometime after that, I heard a yell of "_First Aid_" and the familiar green light surrounded me. Oh yay, someone'd finally got it through their skull that I was lying there half dead watching the whole fight. Gee, I sure was needing a lot of healing today... Slowly getting up and rubbing the back of my head, I took a quick look at the battle and then began scanning the area for my dagger. _Dammit, where is it...?_ A light blue gleam from the floor caught my eye. The Hydra Dagger was almost directly behind where Sheena and Lloyd were fighting.

"Why me?" I growled, slowly weaving my way through the combatants. Everything was still kinda fuzzy, as my brain was still recovering from being thrown against a stone wall and then hitting the ground equally hard. Skirting the edge of the area where Kratos, Colette, and Genis were pounding away on the lightning guardian, I carefully slunk into the area behind Sheena, gesturing frantically at Lloyd to _keep her busy_.

The bonehead, of course, didn't get it. "Speak up! What's wrong?" He yelled, parrying a swipe from Sheena and her cards. The ninja assassin in question looked over her shoulder, saw me, and snarled.

"You! You shall pay!"

"Sorry lady, I'm out of change!" I stammered, scooping up my dagger and bringing it forward to block as Sheena lunged forward, clearly intending to pay me back for tripping her earlier. Shrinking back against the wall, I prepared to engage one very angry ninja when-

"Demon Fang!" The shockwave hit the back of Sheena's knees, and she tripped again, falling hard on the floor. I took this opportunity to run over her (quite literally) to safety.

From the right of us, the guardian that the others had been facing gave a last shriek and then disintegrated, defeated. Cleaning their weapons (and in Colette's case, drawing in her wings), the other half of the party rejoined Lloyd and in near the front door in staring down Sheena, who was now extremely dirty and covered in footprints, courtesy of me.

"Ugh..." Sheena peeled herself off the floor and gave us all a dirty look. "I swear... I'll get you next time!" _Poof!_ There was a puff of smoke and she was gone. There was also another moment of silence, before...

"Dang, I wish I could do that."

----------

Afterwards, we filed out of the Balacruf Mausoleum, tired, dirty, slightly injured, but triumphant. Another seal was down, that made one more to go. Fun fun fun. One more seal until hell broke loose.

"Colette, what's wrong?" _Fwump_. I winced as Colette fell forward and Lloyd caught her. It was an automatic reflex. "Professor, it's Colette's Toxicosis!"

_Ah, yes. It's the evil Cruxis Crystal evolving further and sucking out Colette's energy. Words fail me._

Out of consideration for the others and their limited knowledge, I pretended to act concerned. Like some people, I was not a huge Colette fan, so if she happened to die I could care less. Therefore, I was slightly thrilled when Lloyd dropped Colette and she got a cut, sadist that I am.

"Ohmigosh! Colette, I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" Lloyd gasped, fussing over Colette as Genis smacked him in the head.

"Lloyd! You idiot! How could you drop her?"

"I..I'm okay, really." Colette said, hesitantly. Lloyd and Genis stared at her like she was crazy.

"You've got to be kidding!" Genis exclaimed. Colette shook her head.

"I'm fine. It doesn't hurt..."

"WHAT!" Lloyd yelped along with Genis. "But your hand! Look how much you're bleeding!"

"Um... it doesn't hurt _much_. Ehehehe..." Colette giggled weakly as she rose unsteadily from the ground. From off on the sidelines, I smacked my forehead. Idiot girl, someone had to teach her the proper way to keep a secret. Heck, _everybody_ here should learn the ways of secret-keeping, if they wanted to keep going at this rate. I was mildly surprised nobody'd guessed anything yet, but once we hit that stupid Tower... My brain hurt just thinking about it.

"Well then, I guess we'll stay here for the night." Raine's voice broke into my musings. "Colette needs to rest, and I daresay that the rest of us need to as well."

"Hear, hear." I said, walking down the steps towards our previous campsite from last night. "Genis, get out the bread, methinks we're having more sandwiches tonight..."


	7. At Luin

The next morning I woke up stiff as a brick. My back hurt especially...and my head was also a bit sore as well (no doubt from being slammed into the wall yesterday). All this resulted in making me rather clumsy. After tripping over several rocks and somehow failing to see a fallen stone pillar right in front of me (therefore running into it) I just sat around our "fire pit" with my eyes closed, massaging my temples.

"So," Lloyd asked as he helped to pack up our stuff, "Where do we go next?" There was a collective silence, and then someone kicked me in the rear.

"OW!" I yelped, jumping up unsteadily and rubbing my sore tailbone. "What was that for?"

"Where do we go next?" Kratos asked, all prefaces gone (and he was the one who kicked me in the butt, by the way).

"I dunno! Hang on, let me think.." Plopping down on the ground again (as gently as possible) I stared hard at the dirt for a moment, thinking.

_Well, we've met Sheena for the second time, so that means... Luin-Hima-Tower of Mana-Luin-Asgard-Balacruf Mausoleum..._

"Ya'll are going to hate me for this," I announced as I broke out of my deep concentration and looked around at the others, "But we're going back to Luin again."

"Again? How many times have we been to that city already?" Genis whined, looking a bit crestfallen. Counting silently on my fingers, I reached a grand total and got off the ground, beckoning to Noishe for my ride.

"I make it out to be three so far, and I promise that this is the last time we're going to have to go to Luin for a _long_ while." I promised, hopping onto the protozoan's back and wincing as my sore tailbone made contact. Maybe riding Noishe hadn't been the best idea.

"Well, we do need to stock up on supplies anyway." Raine said, gathering up her pack and walking off, casting a last loving glance at the Balacruf Mausoleum. Lloyd, Genis, Colette, and I all made gross faces at her behavior, before we were shepherded along by Kratos, who looked somewhat annoyed. Possibly because he was stuck with babysitting duty again...

----------

The day passed quickly and somewhat uneventfully. We were attacked by bandits when we crossed the bridge spanning the distance between Asgard and the Mausoleum, but it was a simple matter to fend them off. They may have _looked_ tough, but the poor bastards couldn't defend to save their lives. I had the gross honor of severely maiming someone, but I didn't kill them. When it came right down to it, I really doubted I could kill someone in cold blood. Unless, of course, it was one of those Desian Grand Cardinals (preferably Kvar).

Just my luck it was _his_ ranch we'd get to demolish next...

"Emily, watch out for that-"

I tripped over a very good-sized rock right in front of me and ate dirt for the third time in a week. Ew. Not to mention that my shin was now extremely sore. Sitting up and spitting out dust and grass, I carefully got to my feet and dusted off the lower half of my pants, acutely aware of the confused and embarrassed stares I was getting.

"Umm... Are you okay?" Lloyd asked, looking a bit worried. "You've been kinda...out of it...ever since you woke up this morning."

"Tell me about it." I muttered, motioning for Noishe. I'd stopped riding the protozoan halfway through the morning due to the protests of my tailbone (and the fact that we were attacked by bandits, meaning that the chicken dog had run away) but now it was becoming apparent that I was a danger to my own health with the way this was going. "I think I left my reflexes back at the Balacruf Mausoleum."

"Along with your brains and your sense of balance. You're almost worse than Colette." Genis observed, snickering slightly. Bristling, I tried to ignore him and climbed up onto Noishe, the silver-and-green dog whining as was customary.

"Are you quite finished?" Kratos' voice drifted back to us, leaving Lloyd, Genis, and I to realize that Raine and Colette had gone ahead with Kratos, apparently not aware of my little disagreement with the rock. The three of us made faces in unison, all in Kratos' general direction, before I gently squeezed Noishe about the middle with my legs.

"C'mon boy! Last one to catch up has to eat Raine's cooking tonight!" I proclaimed, Noishe leaping forward with a sharp bark. Behind us, Lloyd and Genis protested loudly.

"No fair! You're on Noishe and Lloyd has longer legs than me!" Genis whined as he tried to catch up with us. Sheesh, but Lloyd almost ran as fast as his own dog.

Despite that fact, I won the race, haha.

"Genis! You have to eat Raine's cooking tonight!"

Before long, the lake that Luin was situated in loomed before us, just as the sun was going down. Due to my being on Noishe, I got there first, and didn't even have to pretend to be horrified. The scene in the game really didn't do this place justice.

"Wha- This is horrible!" Genis' squeak broke out behind me, along with collective gasps from Colette and Raine. Looking back at the others, I saw Lloyd shaking his head in sadness and Kratos surveying the area with a calculating eye.

Luin was in ruins, the houses burned and broken, the bridges shattered, the streets lined with drops of blood and the people gone. In the light of the setting sun, it gave the destroyed town a somewhat sinister look, something this once-peaceful town didn't deserve.

"Well, you don't have to shake a stick to figure out who did it," I muttered under my breath, urging Noishe off towards the wreck of the fountain. "Kvar, you bastard. We'll get you for this..." Underneath me, Noishe growled at the mere mention of his name. Doubtless he still remembered the man who'd turned Anna into a monster and caused Kratos to suffer. Not to mention trying to kill the poor dog and Lloyd as well.

Approaching the fountain, I stiffened momentarily at the sight of Sheena, before I remembered the reason why she was lying on the ground, covered in wounds and half-dead. Sliding off of Noishe, I stepped slowly over to her, picking my way through the puddles that surrounded the ruined fountain and hoping that she still didn't bear any grudges for when I ran over her during that fight in the Mausoleum. "Sheena? Hey, you're not dead are you?"

"Heh.. I might as well be." Clutching a wounded shoulder, Sheena looked up at me with a demented smirk, clearly anticipating this to be her last moments and she was at least determined to go out sarcastically. "Well, what're you waiting for? Go ahead and finish me off." She said, eyes straying to the dagger at my hip. "You won't find a better chance than this."

"Uh-huh. And if I did that, a certain redhead somewhere would be extremely angry with me." I replied dryly, watching Sheena's expression change quickly to shock and then back to her old mask of defiance. "'Cute girls deserve to live long', isn't that one of his mottos?"

"H-how do you know about him?" Sheena gasped. I shrugged, grinning wryly.

"He's public enemy Number One for all women everywhere." I said, chuckling slightly. "I promise I'll tell you all about it when you get better. PROFESSOR!"

A minute later Raine appeared on the path with the others behind her, all panting and looking worried.

"What's wrong? You're not hurt, are you?" She asked. I sweatdropped, embarrassed.

"Is that always your first assumption with me...?" Shaking my head, I continued on with my request. "Anyway, d'ya think you could heal-"

"Hey! It's that assassin person!" _...way to go, Lloyd. Your powers of observation never cease to amaze._

"Oh no! She's hurt! Professor, please heal her!" Colette begged, wringing her hands with worry. I slapped myself in the face. _...hello? Who's listening to me? I just said that..._

"But-" Raine suddenly found herself confronted with three pairs of the most soulful-looking puppydog eyes in the universe, contributed by Colette, Genis, and Lloyd. Sighing, I leaned forward and added in my own, though I wasn't sure if mine were quite as soulful. "-Oh, alright! But don't blame me if she slits our throats in our sleep." She muttered under her breath, leaning over Sheena with her staff and going to work.

"So, can you tell us what happened here?" Lloyd asked a minute later, watching Sheena look herself over, amazed that her injuries were gone.

"Yeah, I guess so." She replied, sitting on the edge of the ruined fountain and pulling her feet up out of range of puddles. "The Desians attacked the city and took all the people away. And then, well..." Gesturing to the ruins of Luin with one hand, she sighed. "You can see the results of what they did next..."

"You got hurt trying to save the people of this city, didn't you?" I asked calmly, seating myself next to Sheena on the fountain. My rear end protested violently at the rough accommodations. The lilac-clad ninja nodded.

"Yeah. I owe the people of this city for housing me, so-" Her explanation was cut off by a scream as a tattered traveler ran down the path, a grasshopper following him. Before any of us could really get up to help him, Sheena vanished.

That's really the only way I can describe her actions, other than teleportation. One minute she was next to me, and the next- right in front of that grasshopper and giving it what-for with her little magic cards. The beast hissed, flailing its claws as Sheena pretty much danced circles around the thing, slicing at it with her cards. A minute later it took off squealing, with Sheena giving it a last smack to the rear as encouragement.

"What're you all staring at...?" She questioned, confused, as she strolled back to us like nothing had happened, and killing giant monster bugs everyday was ordinary. I wasn't aware that my jaw had fallen open while watching her fight, but now realizing that my mouth was getting dry made me reach up and shut it.

"That...was _cool_." Lloyd grinned, getting excited again. "I wish I could fight like that..." Kratos chuckled dryly from his spot behind Lloyd.

"Maybe if you practiced more, you could do that..." The poor swordsman in question winced at the shameless barb, instantly becoming crestfallen.

"Aww, Kratos..."

"Well," Raine sighed, looking about, "It's getting dark and we should find someplace to stay. Let's set up camp..."

"Wait, Raine! Not here..." Everybody stared at me due to my sudden outburst. "Um, I mean not here in front of the fountain! It's really wet and muddy here, and...er..."

"You wanna take a bath, don't you?" Sheena observed. I nodded, giving her a questioning look.

"How'd you know...?"

"You're covered in dust, mud, blood, dirt, and grass. Any sane person would want to get clean." Sheena replied, hopping off the fountain and following Raine back to the main ruins of Luin. She was joined shortly by Lloyd and Genis, leaving only Kratos, Colette, and I at the fountain.

"Now that you mention it... I want a bath too." Colette sighed, looking down at herself. It was clear that her outfit was a little less than pearly white, and her golden hair was starting to look a bit more toned-down. I shrugged, looking over into the fountain. The water might be cold, but... I was so going to get clean, come Hell or high water.

"Hmm... You can probably take one this evening after me." I said, getting off the broken marble edge and dusting off the seat of my pants. "Nobody's going to stop you, Colette... You just have to promise to watch for peepers for me, okay? I'll do it for you."

"Okay!" Colette grinned cheerfully, trotting off down the path to Luin. She tripped over a rock along the way and went face-first in the dirt, but got right back up and kept on going without so much as a cry. I shook my head. That was one evil Cruxis crystal.

"Kratos?" He looked over at me, pausing from his own ascension of the path back to the ruins. "Stop making Lloyd seem inferior. He doesn't have 4,000 years worth of time to hone his skills, he's only 17! And he's doing the best he can."

Kratos was quiet for a long moment. "Sometimes your best just isn't enough." He muttered, before leaving the area. I walked after him slowly, thinking on his words before they actually hit me.

_Of course... He tried his best to save Anna, but... Like he said, his best wasn't enough. It's a veiled warning_, I realized. _If Lloyd can't improve beyond his best, he'll lose Colette..._ "So, Kratos. You really do care." I whispered softly to myself, half-certain that he heard me.

----------

Later that evening I huddled as close as I could to the campfire without burning myself, freezing my butt off. The fountain water had been _cooooooold_... My teeth only chattered harder when I tried to clench my jaws together.

Colette had also taken her bath, and wasn't shivering in the least. In fact, she was off somewhere near the lake watching the stars again with Lloyd. Sheena seemed to have mysteriously vanished after dinner, warning us that even though we'd healed her, we were not to expect immediate friendship or anything. Genis and Raine were sleeping, and Kratos...

"Here." Something was dropped about my shoulders, and I realized with shock that it was Kratos' swallow-tail cape.

"K-k-kratos?" I looked up at him in amazement, surprised that he would even do something like this. It was completely outside of his stoic nature.

"I don't need it." Kratos replied in a sort of offhand way, leaving the fireside and heading off towards the small cliff that overlooked the ruins of Luin. "Just be sure to give it back tomorrow..."

"O-o-okay! Th-thanks." I shivered, hugging it tighter around me and snuggling into it, a sort of inner glow spreading through me. _I am wearing KRATOS' cape... Yus!_ I inwardly squealed with glee. Even though the strangely-designed cape may not have looked like the warmest thing in the world, it actually captured body heat pretty well. After I while I began to warm up and feel sleepy, so I started looking around for my faithful pillow, Noishe.

"Damn that dog. Where is he?" I muttered, stumbling around the ruins of the houses. Our camp had been made in the most stable and whole wreck we could find, but Noishe wasn't there. Hence the reason I was now searching around in the other, less-than-safe houses. "Noishe!"

"Bark!" The call of the protozoan came from near the lake, so that's where I went, shaking off ashes and debris along the way. As I emerged from a house I heard Lloyd yelling, and shook my head. It seemed that the dunce had found out about Colette's loss of senses... though I had to admit to myself that using that trick with the coffee _had_ been pretty clever for Lloyd. Then I frowned as I came upon the two of them on the lake's edge, hugging. Eww.

"Whine..." I practically went three feet in the air as Noishe snuck up behind me on his soft paws and shoved his big wet nose into the back of my neck. With both hearts thumping madly in terror, I clutched my chest in an attempt to calm both down and turned to face a snickering protozoan.

"Noishe, you crazy, sneaky, devious, scrawny, funky-colored excuse for a mutt, don't you _ever_ do that again!" I hissed at him, trying to ignore the big dog's evil woofing. "I shall now punish you by riding you back to camp and sleeping on your back all night." His ears went down as I hopped onto Noishe's back and pillowed my head on his. "Now, mush!" Whining dejectedly, Noishe slunk back to camp so we could both go to sleep.

----------

As per habit, we arose far too early next morning to set out for the Asgard Ranch. Heck, it wasn't even light out yet... Since I'd fallen asleep on Noishe's back from last night, I didn't even have to call him for a ride, which was a bonus. The arshis, however, seemed quite grumpy about his constant load and attempted to buck me off several times.

"Noishe..." The dog stopped again for the eighth time this morning, ears back. I sighed and leaned back, bracing myself from the oncoming forward upheaval that would be used in an attempt to dislodge me from clinging to his shoulders.

However, this time was quite different. Instead of throwing himself forward, that evil dog sat down hard, and positioned as I was I slid right off his back onto the ground. "Ow! Noishe!" He snickered in a way that only evil protozoans can, then dashed off ahead to leave me stranded on the ground, forced to walk. "I swear I'm going to kill that dog." I muttered under my breath, getting up and dusting myself off before commencing walking along with the rest of the gang, falling in somewhere behind Genis and in front of Kratos.

"I believe you still have something of mine." My sleepy brain slowly registered that statement, and the fact that I was still wearing Kratos' cape from last night. That took a minute. "Do I get it back?"

"Eh?" I shook my head slightly in an attempt to wake up further. "Oh, right! Sorry..." I said somewhat sheepishly, unfastening the cape and handing it back to Kratos. He took it without ceremony, dusted it off and smoothed out some wrinkles in the fabric before slipping it on.

"Well, I see you didn't destroy it," he remarked, striding past me towards Colette's side. "Thank you."

"No problem." I muttered sleepily, yawning once before jogging after the others in an attempt to catch up.


	8. The Asgard Ranch, pt 1

About halfway through the afternoon we arrived at the outskirts of the Asgard Ranch. Noishe was nowhere to be found, due to the abundant Desian population, so I was still forced to walk. My legs felt like month-old jelly.

"There's the ranch." Lloyd stated suddenly, and sure enough there it was through a gap in the trees. I shoved down an urge to run up and spraypaint graffiti all over the front gate (impossible to accomplish because of the guards and a lack of paint), and stated the all-important question instead.

"So, how do we get in?" I was awarded with more stares for my effort. "Why are you all looking at me?"

"You mean you don't know?" Genis asked, amazed. "And here I was thinking that you were smarter than Raine!" She promptly whacked him in the head with a tree branch. "Ow!"

"What?" In the game Raine was the one who came up with the plan, but since everybody was staring at me... "Oh, fine. Why don't we just...have someone dress up like a Desian and the rest of us pretend to be prisoners?" I pretended to have that come off the top of my head, spur-of-the-moment.

"Dress up like Desians..." Raine bowed her head, clearly considering the plan. That took a moment of my life, during which I got eaten by mosquitoes and nearly sat in a patch of poison ivy (thankfully, the members of my family are immune to it). "You know, that's not a bad idea." Raine stated finally, peeking out of the bush at the road to watch the gate. "We'll wait until a Desian patrol comes by, and then ambush them to steal their uniforms, alright?"

"Gotcha." Lloyd grinned evilly, excitement mounting. "Man, I can't wait..."

"I can." I muttered under my breath. "I don't particularly want to _kill_ someone..."

"It comes with the territory." Kratos replied quietly and without remorse. "These things cannot be helped... Besides, I thought you were looking forward to killing Kvar?" He asked suddenly, changing track so fast I nearly lost him.

"Kvar...is different." I answered carefully. "After seeing what he's done, I don't know if I can call him anything but a monster. And we all know I have no problem killing monsters..."

"Humph. Look at it however you see fit." Kratos muttered, before perking up and looking down the road, hand on his sword. "Shh. A patrol is coming."

"What do you mean? I can't hear anything." Genis mumbled, looking around in confusion.

"Quiet, Genis. I hear them too." Colette whispered, reaching for her chakrams and putting on a brave face. I guessed she wasn't exactly enthralled at the idea of having to kill people either.

By now, the patrol had come into view on the road, and we were all tense. "Somebody distract them from the front," I hissed. "Then we can get them from the back before they can blink. Spellcaster and healer stay in bushes please, you'll be safer."

"Alright. Be careful." Raine murmured, tightening her grip on her staff. Beside her, Genis had his kendama out and already looked like he was charging up a spell. Good ol' Short Stuff.

"I'll distract them." Lloyd said, and hopped out into the road with swords drawn. "Double Demon Fang!" The double shockwave caught the patrol of three off guard, and that's when Kratos moved in. Swift as a shadow, he sliced one of the lesser party's backs open before I could blink.

That meant it was my turn now. As the two remaining patrol members went after Kratos and Lloyd, I stuck my foot out of the bushes. Lo and behold, someone else fell over it and I jumped out on top of them. It turned out to be a female Desian, and I automatically knew that I _couldn't_ get this uniform dirty, since Raine would be wearing it later.

Looking up for a moment, I noted Lloyd and Colette closing on the last remaining Desian as Kratos cleaned his sword on a patch of grass. As my captive squirmed under me, I set my jaw and tried to figure out a quick way to kill her. _A slash through the spinal cord at the back of the neck should do it..._ Reaching for my Hydra Dagger, I pulled it out, the blue crystal blade flashing in the sunlight. Setting it right against the side of the Desian's neck, I shut my eyes and yanked my dagger through. The sharp blade cut so easily I thought for a moment that I'd missed, but when I opened my eyes there was a deep slash in the corpse's neck, and blood was flowing everywhere.

_...ewww. So this is what it's like to kill somebody,_ I thought, gingerly cleaning my dagger on a clean section of the path. _I now have someone else's blood on my hands... But at least it was painless for them, right?_

_You've turned into a total nutcase if you can find something positive about murder_, I scolded myself, turning away from my victim and sheathing the Hydra Dagger. I now wanted this mission over with so that we could leave. Behind me, Raine was busy salvaging the uniforms (the ones that were clean enough to use, anyway).

"Okay," she announced after thirty more minutes of us hiding in the woods, "Let's get this over with. I'll be the Desian."

"Aww... I wanted to be the Desian!" Lloyd whined, crestfallen. Raine gave him a withering glare.

"That would be impossible unless you had a sudden gender change. This uniform is for females, and it's the only serviceable one," she stated, gathering up the outfit and stepping behind a tree. "Now don't look unless you want to be permanently blind."

"No problems there." I muttered, instantly turning my back. Once you've been nearsighted, you'll never want to be that way again. Trust me. Genis and Lloyd followed suit, while Kratos watched the road for more Desian patrols and Colette looked at the sky.

"I'm done." Raine said, stepping out from the tree after a few minutes. "How do I look?"

"Not bad, Professor." I grinned. "Now all you have to do is stick that look on your face you get every time Lloyd and Genis do something dumb, and we'll be all set to go." Raine rearranged her features accordingly into an angry scowl, then gathered up the spear that came with the uniform and herded us all out onto the path towards the front gate of the Asgard Human Ranch.

"Try to look more prisoner-like," she hissed at us as we shuffled along. "You know, broken and defeated?"

"I hate this." Lloyd muttered, hanging his head and trying to look like he'd been through the mill a few times. I shrugged and let my shoulders slump, arms hanging limply at my sides. Genis had his hands over his head like Raine was going to hit him and looked terrified (so well I couldn't tell if he was faking or not), Colette tried to look like she was going to cry, and Kratos hid all expression behind his hair.

"Halt!" One of the Desians at the gate announced. "State your business!"

"I've captured the wanted criminal, Lloyd Irving, and his companions!" Raine announced in what was supposed to be an evil voice. It sounded remarkably familiar to what we referred to as 'Ruin-Mode'. "I wish to take them to Lord Kvar immediately."

"Congratulations," The Desian guard at the gate smirked. "You may proceed." Raine pretended to whack those of us in the back of the line with her spear, and we all shuffled in through the main gate.

Once safely inside the compound Raine removed her helmet and fluffed her silver hair vigorously. "Whew, I am _never_ putting that on again," she said, booting the helmet off into a corner somewhere. "Now, time to see where we are and what needs to be done..." I looked around the area. It seemed we were in the main control room, which was handy. But wait, this was our first visit to the stupid ranch. Unwelcome visitors would soon be upon us.

"Shh," Colette whispered suddenly, going stiff. "I hear voices coming from the next room."

"Hunh? I don't hear anything." Genis stated, perking his little slightly-pointed ears to listen. Shaking my head at his ignorance, I focused my eyes on the room in question.

"Still, let's be careful Genis..." I muttered, my hand straying to my hip for my Hydra Dagger.

The door suddenly slid open, and Botta rushed into the room with two of his flunkies. I made a face, Gamecube graphics really didn't do his profile justice.

Botta stopped short, looking around at us with surprise and- fear? I couldn't tell, but maybe it was because he saw Kratos. "Damn," he hissed, "I didn't think we'd see _you_ here!"

"I do not think it would be in our best interests to fight here." Kratos stated quietly, motioning for Botta and his Renegades to move on. Looking uncertainly at the members of our group, Botta finally looked over his shoulder and ran off with minions in tow. I quickly drew my dagger, two mages were standing in the doorway and they didn't look friendly.

"Intruders!" One gasped, and started to charge up a spell with his companion following suit. They released a volley of fireballs at Colette, Kratos, and I, namely because we were closest.

"Guardian!" Kratos shielded himself, and I mirrored him, though not quite as well. My mana shield needed a little work, but it withstood the three fireballs that smattered against it. Colette managed to duck two, but the third hit her in the chest and she fell over backwards with jacket singed. In light of this, Lloyd gasped and hurried over to help her.

Meanwhile, the rest of us had gone rigid because a certain weasel-faced Grand Cardinal had stepped in behind his soldiers and was leering at us. As Kvar chuckled evilly, I snuck a cautious glance over at Kratos. His entire body was tense, and I could tell he was fighting down a serious urge to smite the weasel slime with the most powerful Judgment spell he could muster. But then again, that wouldn't do much for his cover if he went around smiting people as an angel in front of us.

"Well now," Kvar grinned, "When I heard we had some rats I thought it would be those annoying Renegades, but I never did expect to encounter you lot in my ranch. Do you like it?" Lloyd looked up from Colette and muttered something that sounded remotely similar to "bastard". During that little phase his exsphere happened to glint as it caught the light, and Kvar saw it, his expression changing instantly. "That exsphere..."

I felt my anger build, and knew we needed to get out of here. If only I could perform that attack... _There's no better time to try than now! Focus!_ _Remember Kratos' lessons!_ My mana spiraled down into the dagger. "Go to hell, Kvar," I growled, swiping the Hydra Dagger outwards in a crescent shape and releasing the mana towards him. "Demon Fang!"

The attack caught him off guard and hit Kvar in the side, causing him to double over. I moved then, but Kratos was faster, slicing through a mage and dragging Colette behind him through the door into a hallway beyond. Maiming my own opponent with Lloyd's help, we ran after the others with Raine and Genis in tow, out the door to safety.

Our party emerged on a landing at the top of a stairway. Lloyd and Genis rooted through some nearby chests for loot while the rest of us caught our breath, then we all descended the stairs. At the bottom we ran into a small patrol of foot soldiers, which were quickly dispatched and left to writhe in puddles of their own blood. We walked away from that encounter with a few cuts and scrapes- nothing an apple gel couldn't fix, and definitely nothing to write home about. After that it was down the walkway, up some stairs, cross a landing and go down more stairs, and then we hit the end of the line.

I stood on the small end platform and stared up at a giant window above us with the rest of the gang. There were horrible screams and cries coming from behind that window, and it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why. Exspheres were being extracted from their host bodies, and the prisoners were dying. Lloyd's face bore a look of undeniable realization as he stared from his exsphere to the window above, along with Genis and Raine. Kratos didn't bother to look at his, he was too busy bristling like a live wire. The poor guy, having to see all of this again. I gingerly stepped up and laid a hand on his arm.

Kratos flinched at the sudden contact, then looked down at me. His eyes were suddenly uncharacteristically soft, a thousand nightmares replaying behind those red orbs. "Don't worry, Kratos." I whispered. "We'll get him."

"I know." He replied quietly, turning away and hiding his expression behind his hair once more. I had the feeling he'd be like that for the rest of the duration of time that we were here.

"So, _there_ you all are." I bit back the growl forming in my throat as we slowly turned around to face Weasel Man. He grinned smugly. "Do you like my exsphere production? It's quite revolutionary."

"But those are _people_ in there!" Lloyd suddenly exploded, and blanched just as quickly. "You're not saying that... Exspheres are made from human lives...!"

"Oh, indeed I am." Kvar replied with a smirk. "Now then, that exsphere... That is undoubtedly the product of my Angelus Project!"

"An.. Angelus Project?" Lloyd asked, confused. His exsphere seemed to glint in the light, mocking Kvar in it's own little way. The bastard Cardinal smirked again, and I was _reeeeally_ starting to get tired of that...

"I was trying to cultivate a more advanced form of exsphere on a human host body," Kvar explained. "The host body chosen was prisoner A012- human name, Anna. Your mother."

I gulped as I watched all remaining color drain from Lloyd's face.

"Now then, I don't suppose you'd mind giving that exsphere back to me..."

"Never!" Lloyd snapped. "I'm not going to give it back to the murdering bastard that killed my mom!"

"Now now," Kvar said, "Let's not go throwing the blame where it doesn't belong. I didn't kill her... Your _father_ did."

There was a collective moment of stunned silence for the whole group. Lloyd had gone whiter than I'd ever thought possible for a human (think bleached milk) with shock. "Th-there's no way..."

"It's quite true, I assure you." Kvar said with false cheeriness, looking quite amused. "If only that filthy female host body hadn't run off with him and stolen my Angelus Project, that might never have happened."

"Don't talk about my parents that way!" Lloyd snarled, hatred rising in his eyes. Kratos had gone stiff again.

"Do not speak ill of the dead." He growled, glaring at Kvar from under his bangs. The Grand Cardinal gave him an indifferent look, before his hungry eyes settled on Lloyd's exsphere.

"I'm tired of this nonsense. Get them!" Kvar ordered, when there was a poof of smoke and Sheena appeared in front of us, looking a bit beat up but none the worse for the wear.

"I'm sorry Grandpa...looks like I'm gonna have to use the last one." She muttered, before mumbling something under her breath. Seconds later another guardian demon appeared and attacked the oncoming Desians with a screech. During that little interval, Sheena spirited us all away.

----------

We sat around our old campfire back in Luin that night, tired, sore, and utterly shocked. Even I was a little horrified, and I'd seen that sight two times, as well as having prior warning. However, I guess that just went to prove that you have to see some things up close to get the full picture.

"This...thing!" Lloyd burst out suddenly, ripping his exsphere off his hand and holding it above the fire, ready to throw it in. There were collective gasps from all around, and I saw Kratos go stiff again. Instinctively, I knew if Lloyd chucked that exsphere Kratos would retrieve it from the fire. A noble act, but not good for his cover.

"Lloyd, don't! That exsphere has your mother's life in it!" Colette cried, motioning for him to put it down. "Don't just throw your mom away!"

"Besides, Lloyd, if we got rid of our exspheres we wouldn't be able to fight the Desians and help Colette regenerate the world." Yay for rationable lil' Short Stuff. Genis was also staring at his exsphere, absently stroking it.

"Yeah, I know." Something in Lloyd seemed to sag for a moment. "But...just knowing what these things are made of...what it did to my mother...!"

"I know how you feel, Lloyd," Genis said, holding up his hand so that the exsphere flashed in the light. "This is Marble's life..."

"I know my opinion doesn't matter too much, because I don't use an exsphere," _...Ignoramus. What do you think is attached to your chest?_ "But if I ended up like that, I wouldn't want to be thrown away. I'd want to help someone, to be useful!"

Lloyd gave Colette a long look, then his exsphere. "Well Lloyd? Do you still feel the same way about exspheres?" Raine asked after a moment.

"No!" Lloyd's unusual outbursts were quite surprising. The people nearest to him took a cautious step back, and those farther away just stared at him. That would be Kratos and myself, for I was sitting on the remains of a burned-up couch and Kratty was...well, being Kratty.

Lloyd sighed, seeming a bit crestfallen again. "I'm sorry to snap Professor, guys. Just...give me some time to think about it, okay?"

"Have all the time you need," I said, getting up and dusting off my butt before heading through a hole in the wall out towards the lake. "I'm going stargazing. 'Night Lloyd."

The sky was clear and glittered with the Sylvarantian stars I'd slowly become familiar with. I still couldn't find any constellations- even though there _was_ that one cluster that reminded me of the Pleiades- but that never stopped me from looking anyway. Sitting down on a bench near the fountain, there was a whine from behind me and Noishe came trotting down the path. Large ears bobbing, he plopped down on the ground next to my bench with a sigh and laid his head on crossed paws, staring at the water.

"You did well with killing that Desian today."

I nearly fell off the bench with fright as Kratos materialized out of the darkness, wearing his signature smirk. Flipping back some of my hair, I shot him a frosty look. "It's not something I'm _proud_ of, y'know."

"Do you want to talk about it?" This time, I really did fall off the bench. Kratos, meanwhile, sat down at the other end and watched me brush myself off before sitting gingerly back down on the bench. "What was that about?"

"It's just... Kratos... You're acting so...un-Kratos-y!" I blinked, amazed. "You sound like my psychologist! Since when do you care about how I feel?"

Kratos hrmphed. "A teacher has to take care of his students." I quickly smacked myself in the face.

"Seriously, stop before I faint. Whaddya mean 'teacher-and-student?'"

"I'm teaching you swordplay, aren't I?" Kratos said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Both you and Lloyd. That would make you my students."

"If that's so, and I suddenly decide to apply your philosophy, why aren't you over there talking to Lloyd?" I asked, pointing over to where the campfire was faintly glowing from among the ruined houses. Kratos smirked again.

"I already did, and you were next on my list, so here I am," he replied calmly. "Your Demon Fang was also nice. I must admit, I was a little surprised you'd master it there of all places..."

My head swam. Dear Martel, I was getting praised by the king of hotness himself, who was now apparently my self-appointed teacher. Despite the tragedies from earlier, could this night get _any_ better?

Apparently so...

"Tomorrow we'll start trying to learn the Double Demon Fang. Since Kvar knows we infiltrated his ranch once already, the security will have been stepped up and we won't be able to get back in there for a bit. It's the perfect time to step up your training..."

I take that back. I'd rather face Kvar than have Kratos pound on me from dawn till dusk. Kratos huffed a bit of a disappointed sigh, so I guess my face was giving me away again.

"So..um...back to that Desian-killing thing," I said, trying to steer his mind away from future training sessions. "How can you stand to kill people like that? Doesn't it kind of...eat away at your brain after a while?"

Kratos shrugged indifferently. "I've long become used to killing. Occasionally yes, it does disturb me, but like I said back at the ranch: It's something that comes with the territory. There will be situations where you must kill if you want to live, so it's best to get used to it right now."

I sat quietly for a moment, absorbing Kratos' other and decidedly cold philosophy. _Best to get used to it right now... _After a moment I looked up to ask another question, but Kratos was gone.

"Thanks for the advice, I guess," I sighed as I leaned over to rub Noishe behind the ears, "my new teacher."


	9. We're going to Hima! Slowly

Our entire group had the pleasure of sleeping in next morning. Well, almost all of us...with copious amounts of Noishe slobber and Kratos' well-aimed kicks, Lloyd and I were both roused for morning training. The old man was relentless, and tired as we were the only things we students could do was wave our swords around randomly, mumble things, and hope we'd hit each other.

Kratos watched in disgust, smacked himself in the face, and then muttered something about making us run all the way to Lake Umacy for a warm-up jog.

"Ah, breakfast. Gimme," I moaned after an hour and a half of torture, flopping down next to the fire pit like an invertibrate to stare hungrily at the pancakes Genis was cooking. While Genis was giving me nervous looks, Lloyd walked up behind the blue-clad mage and grabbed an already-made stack of ten flapjacks before dashing off, munching as he went.

"LLOYD! Give back breakfast!" Genis yelled, chasing after the thieving swordsman. I stared groggily over in their direction, and when Raine brought out a skillet I decided to make myself a sandwich instead.

"So. Where do we go after this?" Raine mused fifteen minutes later as she attempted to cook an omelette. Lloyd and Genis had come back by now, smelled Raine's cooking, and hidden under a half-burnt couch. Luckily for me, I had my sandwich and therefore no reason to suffer.

"I would presume that we would continue the regeneration journey," Kratos said, pushing away the food Raine offered him and trying not to look at it. Colette frowned a moment, and then gave the merc a pleading look.

"No Mr. Kratos, we have to save those people!"

"I agree," Sheena stated, poofing out of nowhere next to me and scaring me half to death. As Colette poked my stiff and prone body, sprawled on the ground with shock, Sheena went on. "Besides, I'm still bound to kill you if you try and attempt the journey." Kratos gave the ninja a scary look, which she returned. Wow. Someone else who could get Kratty in the ferocious glare department.

"Guys..please...tension levels too high.." I pretended to be crushed by the air and gagged, which earned me evil death glares and a swat to the head from Kratos. There was also much giggling from Lloyd and Genis under their couch, which turned to whimpers as Raine shoved a dish full of food under there (it was supposedly porridge, but I didn't think it was supposed to be green and full of small pointy things).

"Anyway," I went on, rubbing the back of my head in agony, "while we have some down time I think we should tie up loose ends. Do some good deeds. Show the world how totally awesome the Chosen is, eh?" Colette grinned widely, a sight that I think left me scarred for life.

"Well, as long as we're helping people, let's do it!" She chirped in a sugar-high sort of way, and I grimaced slightly. _Eeek, hyper Colette...has she been getting into the syrup again?_

"Assuming we did go along with your plan, just what would we be doing?" Raine asked matter-of-factly, before taking a bite of her "porridge" and muttering something about needing more chili peppers. "It's not like we can just go around running errands and doing laundry."

"I've been thinking about that." Reaching over into Raine's pack, I pulled out a large worn blue novel with elvish writing on the binding and held it up so the others could see. "Remember this? Boltzman's book?"

"PUT THAT BACK!" Raine shrieked suddenly, snatching the book out of my hands and holding it close to her chest, lovingly stroking it. I twitched, while everybody else just blinked. Raine looked up, a little sheepish. "I haven't finished carbon-dating it yet..."

Lotsa sweatdrops.

"Er...anyway...who recalls _why_ we had to fetch this book from the Tower of Doom?" I asked, taking a bite of my sandwich and looking around. "Any takers?"

There was relative silence for a few minutes as the party tried to remember just _why_ they had to fetch the book in the first place. I watched, somewhat smug, and tried not to laugh.

"OHMIGOSH PIETRO!" Sheena got it first. "I totally forgot about him! Oh no! He might be dead by now from that curse!" I nearly spat out my mouthful of sandwich. Dear Martel, I was witnessing Sheena having a panic attack! I didn't know whether to laugh or scream.

"Oh, that's right! He's that nice man who escaped from the ranch, right?" Colette asked, looking worried now. "Oh, I forgot all about him! What'll we do?"

"Well, we could go to Hima to heal him..." Raine figured slowly, flipping through Boltzman's book. "We _do_ have time, and it's not too far..."

"Not to mention if he escaped the Asgard Ranch, he's bound to know another way in, right?" I added optimistically, a rare emotion coming from me! Holy crap, this game was doing strange things to my personality...

Kratos looked murderous at the thought of another lengthy detour. As he opened his mouth (no doubt to protest) I jumped in the air and landed on him, making poor Kratty the subject of another glomp-tackle. "Hey, chill out old man! Now you have all the time in the world to train me," I grinned evilly, squeezing his neck. Kratos froze, and went bright red as Raine and Sheena practically fell over laughing. Colette just giggled, probably not getting the implications of my actions.

Five seconds later I was flying through the air as Kratos forcibly dislodged me from his neck and scrambled to his feet, shaking. I landed face-first into the old couch that Lloyd and Genis were hiding under, the impact knocking the old thing over as I yelped and was buried under half-burnt wood, fabric, and fluffy stuffing. "What the hell was that for?" I spat, shoving rotten foam padding off of me and crawling out of the wreck. Kratos unleashed his patented Death Glare at ten times the power, and I suddenly felt like burying myself under the house's foundation.

"First rule," Kratos hissed icily, "_Never_ do that again."

"Yes sir," I gulped, turning tail to run. "I'm just going to go drown myself in Lake Sinoa now- Dear Goddess! Lloyd! Genis!" In amongst the ruins of the couch were their still forms. "Kratty, you killed them!"

"What? I did not," he growled, taking one look and then ignoring the entire scene. Raine cast an evil look in his direction, before swooping over to tend to her brother.

"Woo, what happened to those guys?" Sheena remarked from over my shoulder, amidst Colette's flailing in the background due to loss of Lloyd. I shrugged, and leaned over to cautiously poke the comatose party members.

"I dunno, but it must have been darned-"

_...hey, what's that weird smell? It vaguely resembles DEAR GOD MY NOSE IS BURNING! AHHHHHHHHH! Can't...fo..cus..._

Colette and Sheena squealed as I toppled over and the world blacked out.

----------

"Ergh..."

_"Oh good, I think they're coming to! Wait... Mr. Aurion... What are you doing with that water...? MR. AURION! DON'T YOU DARE!"_

_SPLASH._

"ACKHELPPORRIGEDROWNING!" I yelped as I shot up from the ground and looked around for the evil bowls of funky green porridge that had been chasing me with buckets of water. I got very amused and sympathetic looks in return from Kratos, Raine, Sheena, and Colette. Just try to guess who gave what.

Oh yes, and did I mention? Kratos was holding an empty bucket. It looked wet. Bastard.

Lloyd and Genis were the next ones up, and man did they wake up. Screaming at the top of their lungs, the two of them shot up and instantly grabbed each other in terror.

"Horrible...it was horrible..." Lloyd gasped, panic-stricken. "It was dark...and scary...and there were chili peppers with forks...!"

"I saw bowls of oatmeal dressed in orange and carrying a staff..." Genis moaned. I listened to them with interest as I yanked out my ponytail and started to wring out my wet hair.

"Say, Professor... Just what DID happen to us, exactly?" I asked, giving her a stern look. "I remember smelling something funny..." Raine looked a bit mortified, while Colette and Sheena started giggling and trying to muffle it. Kratos, well...he looked bored out of his skull. Nothing new there.

"...Raine?"

"You smelled that...concoction...she made," Kratos stated finally, pointing disdainfully at the evil bowl of porridge that Raine had shoved under the couch earlier at Lloyd and Genis. "Apparently, the mere smell of it was enough to knock the three of you out."

"And give us nightmares," I added, finishing wringing out my hair and pulling it back into a ponytail again.

"...and give you nightmares."

Genis and Lloyd were now staring at Raine with an undefinable look. I put it as something a tad higher than horror, and figured it was the look one gets when they've seen beyond the light. Eww, out-of-body experiences. Anyway, I took a moment to stretch before clambering to my feet and grabbing my pack. "Well guys, time doesn't wait for anybody, and especially not cooking victims, so let's go! To Hima!" I got mortified stares and an approving nod from Kratty, who also wanted to get this show on the road.

"How can you be so callous?" Raine asked, shocked. "You were all just out for nearly thirty minutes, and Lloyd and Genis even longer, you can't all have recovered yet!"

"They can ride on Noishe," I shrugged, shouldering my pack. "Pietro guys, Pietro..."

"She's right," Colette said, "We've got to save Pietro!"

...I love it when my argumentative skills win out.

----------

Lloyd and Genis did nothing but whine and moan as we trudged along the plains that day. Eventually I got so sick of their complaining about their stomaches and the funky visons they kept getting that I volunteered to take Sheena and scout ahead. She was more than happy to come with me.

"So...you see anything?" I asked the moment we were out of eye and earshot from the group.

"Nope," Sheena replied, shaking her head as she sat on a hill and looked down at me as I pretended to be some kind of safari explorer. I must have looked quite amusing. "So, is now a good time for you to tell me how you know about Zelos?"

"Hunh?" I looked up at her in confusion for a moment, before my brain remembered the promise at Luin. "Oh, right. Well Sheena, this might sound a little funky, but then again you come from an alternate world so..." As I went on to explain about my being zapped through a Gamecube to land in my favorite RPG game, Sheena's eyes widened and her jaw dropped.

"Sweet Martel," she whispered when I wrapped up my explanation, "That's incredible."

"You're telling me," I said, crawling up onto the hill next to Sheena and flopping onto my back in the grass to stare up at the sky. "One moment, I was playing it, and next, I was living it. Not that I'm not enjoying this experience..." Closing my eyes, I chuckled softly to myself at the truth in that statement. Though I probably would enjoy this a little more if Kratos wasn't pounding on me with his sword all the time and I didn't have to fight all the bosses. (Yep, smite me. I'm lazy.)

Sheena mirrored me and also laid back into the grass, sighing deeply as she relaxed in the soft grass. "Ahh, this is the life... Things were never like this back in Tethe'alla."

"Mm, I'll bet," I said, cracking an eye open to look at Sheena. "A village full of ninjas must be pretty busy. Speaking of which, I've always been curious about this. Is there really a tradition of sticking a thousand needles into a liar's tounge?" To my surprise, Sheena started laughing.

"Truthfully? No, not really," she chuckled, brushing an errant strand of hair out of her face. "Even though that would be interesting. But we mostly just use that as a threat. To date, I've never heard of any liars getting pierced tounges, or else I'd have a couple dozen holes myself."

"What, you lie?" Now I was amazed. Rolling over onto my side, I stared at Sheena with an eager light in my eyes. "Tell me more!"

We spent nearly thirty minutes lying there in the grass, telling stories about our lives. Sheena told me all about her upbringing, and some of the crazier stunts she'd ever done in her childhood with Orochi and Kuchinawa. Such as stealing their resident shopkeeper's notebook of secrets and replacing it with her grandfather's journal, and using carefully placed mirrors to make it look like the village's well was empty (which caused quite an uproar). There were also the cheesier pranks, like placing eels in one's bed, endless games of Truth or Dare, and long chases through Gaoracchia Forest.

In return, I told Sheena some things about my life. I described my house and town to her, as well as brief outlines of my family and pets. I had a cat that liked to sleep under my bed named Sabella, my brother was a hopeless sports addict, and my father worked all the time. My mother was addicted to British TV. I liked to draw pictures on the computer via my faithful GIMP imaging program, and chat with my friends online for hours, as well as disappearing into my basement for hours at a time to play _Tales of Symphonia_.

Sheena asked me an odd question about that time. "So, if at first you thought that this...game...was not worth playing, how'd you get hooked on it?" I thought a moment, remembering.

"Well, one year my parents had a Christmas party and my friend Libby came. She brought _Tales_ with her," I explained, "So we vanished into my basement to play it...and I was hooked the moment the opening scenes started playing."

Sheena cocked her head to the side, curious. "So...you liked the beginning of the game?"

"Well..." I thought about my real reason for liking it the moment I saw it and went deep scarlet. "That's not all I liked..." The ever-observant ninja noticed this and smirked.

"Oh yeah? Tell me," she snickered. I went even deeper red.

"Only if you promise not to tell anyone EVER."

"Promise," Sheena said, raising her hand into the air in a pledge. "And if I break it you can stick those needles in my tounge." I stared at her a moment, making sure she was serious. Sheena's deep brown eyes didn't show any sign of lying, so I went ahead and took the plunge.

"Alright... I saw Lloyd in the first scene and thought to myself _'If this game is full of hot guys like him then it's got to be worth playing!'_ And I turned out to be right."

Sheena went saucer-eyed. "You liked this place because of _Lloyd?_" When I nodded in total seriousness she burst out laughing again, only much louder this time. I started blushing as Sheena rolled around in the grass clutching her chest as her body shook with the force of her laughter.

"Umm...Sheena? Is it really _that_ funny?" I asked after a minute, when Sheena's laughter had died down to the level of gasping, and she was sitting up wiping tears from her eyes.

"It is to me," she chuckled in between gasps for breath. "To get totally addicted to something because of one guy... Sweet Martel, you must be _obsessed_."

"Hey, what can I say?" I shrugged, flicking the end of my ponytail over my shoulder. "I'm a fangirl. You should have seen me tackle Kratos a while back, that was so awesome. I think I scarred him for life."

"Kratos?" Sheena blinked, not totally familiar with the members of our group yet. "Is he the tall guy in dark purple?"

"Yep, that'd be him," I nodded.

"The guy who threw you at the couch this morning?"

_Nod nod._

"How the heck didja manage to tackle _him?_"

"The element of surprise!" I chirped. "Though I also had a kind of height advantage via Noishe..."

As Sheena opened her mouth to say something I stiffened, an unexplainable prickling traveling through my head. It felt like an ant colony having a parade across my skull. Reaching a hand up to rub my forehead, I frowned. This felt familiar...why?

"What's wrong?" The ninja across from me asked, concerned.

"I...don't know. I think...I'm sensing something..." While trying to sort out the strange prickling we both heard a sudden snort from the other side of the hill. Sheena and I looked at each other with wide eyes, then got flat on our bellies against the ground when we heard the sound of clinking armor. Crawling up to just look over the hill, we immediately ducked back into hiding with the sight of what was over there- a Velocidragon complete with rider!

As we huddled against the base of the hill I snagged a stick and scrawled in the dirt _I vote we run_. Sheena nodded, and just like that we took off back towards the rest of the party, which was only now coming into view over another hill in the distance.

----------

"What happened to you two?" Lloyd asked as we trotted up to the group and I immediately collapsed on the ground, energy spent for the day. All that running was coaxing my rare and mild fits of asthma to the surface, and that wasn't pleasant.

"Velocidragon...just over...next hill," Sheena gasped, only slightly winded. I envied her stamina. "Need a detour."

Kratos perked and his hand automatically went to his sword. "Velocidragon? Hmm...we are in no shape to fight, thanks to this morning's events," he announced, looking at Lloyd and Genis. The two were sitting on Noishe and still looking a little green around the gills. Raine went a slight scarlet at this and glared at Kratos, who ignored her. Looking around the landscape, he apparently spotted something worthy of interest. "Lake Umacy is not too far from here. If we hurry we can make it before nightfall."

_Lake Umacy? Ooo, now we can have soap-opera drama between Sheena/Colette and the unicorn! Oh wait, that comes later after the Seal of Water..._

I staggered over to Noishe and tried to climb onto his back, but failed miserably. I was just too tired. As I was about to give it up and resign myself to crawling along behind the others Noishe bent down slightly and woofed. Seeing as he was now a more respectable height for climbing on, I flailed at his neck but didn't get very far with Lloyd in the way. Speaking of him, both the swordsman and Genis were looking quite amused at my attempts to scrabble onto Noishe.

"Man, you must be tired," Lloyd commented after a minute, before reaching down to seize me under the arms and haul me up onto Noishe's shoulders. If I'd had more energy, I probably would have squealed and tried to hug the guy, but fortunately for Lloyd I was drained. "I guess you can sit up here. Try not to fall off, okay?"

"I'll try," I muttered, while making a mental note to myself to try and fall at every given opportunity, just to get Lloyd to grab me. Rabid fangirlism has no known cure.

Now that I was more-or-less settled onto Noishe, the party started off again on a detour into the woods towards Lake Umacy, all to get away from that evil Velocidragon lurking over the hill...

----------

The sun was just starting to go down when we arrived at the lake, the firey sunset turning the water a bright reddish-orange. While the able-bodied members of our party set to work making a fire at our old, previously-used campsite, Noishe plodded over towards the lake's edge and flopped down on the grass, sighing deeply. The poor dog/rabbit/protozoan thing was tired from dragging us all around the plains of Sylvarant.

Lloyd, Genis, and I rolled off Noishe's back to also sprawl in the grass, just taking in the fresh moist air from the lake. Taking a deep breath, I smiled to myself, feeling much better now compared to earlier in the day.

_Man, today sure was eventful... Got trounced by Kratos, poisoned by Raine, and learned quite a bit about Sheena..._ I then began to wonder if I would be able to purchase a journal when we reached Hima, so I could record all this stuff.

Sitting up and stretching, I glanced over at the lake and got a sudden brain jolt. Damn, but I was forgetting something important again... Standing up, I walked over to the lake's edge and looked in. Yep, sure enough, there was the unicorn pinned under the fallen trees at the bottom of the lake, imprisoned in a large air bubble.

I took a moment to admire the sleeping creature. Personally, I've been very fond of horses all my life, but something about that unicorn spoke to me. It looked to be around sixteen hands high (that would be the horsewoman side of me speaking) and a creamy white color. The horn was a gleaming polished pearl spire, and the hooves were a shining bronze color. The mane and tail were a darker cream, and waved gently in the water.

As I stood there looking at the unicorn, Colette came trotting up next to me. "Hiya Emily!" She said cheerfully. "I guess you're feeling better now, right? Say, what's-" Her eyes widened at the sight of the unicorn, and Colette let out a delighted squeal. "Professor, look at the pretty horse in the lake!"

"Pretty horse in the lake? What-" Raine came over then, looked into the water and gasped in surprise. "A unicorn! Fantastic! I never thought I'd see one..."

Of course, all our speculating brought the rest of the party over to take a look. Genis actually got up to take a look, but Lloyd was lazy. He just rolled over and crawled to the water's edge before leaning over to look in. "Wow, a unicorn! What are they again?" I turned in time to see Raine start bashing her head against a rock.

"Mythical creatures, Lloyd. Horned horses with incredible healing powers," Kratos said, lightly kicking him in the side. "They can only be approached by pure maidens, however."

"Cool! Let's go see it!" Kratos shoved Raine over and started bashing his head against the rock. I rolled my eyes.

"That wouldn't work, Lloyd," Genis said, shaking his head. "Weren't you listening to Kratos? They can only be approached by girls."

"That's _pure maidens_, Genis. Not to mention that I think it'd be hard to hold your breath for that long if you tried to swim," I noted, giving Lloyd a poke to the top of the head. "Moron."

Just as Lloyd was about to shove me in the lake for the second time in my life, we heard Sheena mumbling something in the background. "Hmm? Sheena, we didn't catch that," I said, scrabbling madly at Lloyd and the ground so I wouldn't be taking another unwanted dip in Lake Umacy.

"I said, there might be a way," Sheena repeated, looking a little nervous. "If we formed a pact with Undine, the Summon Spirit of Water..."

"That would work," Raine said, coming back from abusing the rock with her head. Kratos, however, was still going at it. "But the art of summoning was lost long ago. It'd be impossible."

"Not really," Sheena countered, still looking a bit nervous. "I was actually taught how to do it. If I make a pact with a Spirit, I can summon."

"Cool!" Lloyd cheered for like the second or third time today, and gave me a shove.

"ACK!" _SPLOOSH._ Damn, that stupid lake must have a vendetta against me or something. Swimming to the surface, I shook some hair out of my face and then scrambled back onto the bank, where Lloyd was bent double laughing and the others were giving me somewhat sympathetic looks.

"Since I know you all don't want a repeat of last time, this'll have to do instead," I announced, and shoved Mr. Funny backwards. He yelped, windmilled a bit with his arms, but still fell in the water anyway. Grinning evilly, I happily joined in with the spontaneous laugh fest as Lloyd crawled onto the bank growling.

At about that point Kratos came over to announce that dinner was ready, and led Lloyd back to the fire so he could dry off. Sniffing the air, I made out the scent of what appeared to be some kind of stew and then trotted eagerly off back to the campsite. When I got close, however, I just stared in horror at what was for dinner.

Yes, it was stew. But not just any kind of stew.

_Oyster_ stew. Yes, goddess-damned freshwater _oyster _stew. I gulped and gave it a cautious look. Would I die if I ate it?

Genis must have noticed the fact I was looking unusually pale. "What's wrong? Don't you like oysters?"

"Actually Genis, I'm severely allergic to all kinds of shellfish," I said somewhat shakily. "Oysters, mussels, clams, scallops, crabs, and lobsters all apply."

Colette looked at me with worried eyes. "What happens if you eat them?"

"I usually get an immediate allergic reaction," I replied, "Involving nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, and then later a high fever and lots of hives." Everybody stared at me for probably the millionth time this journey. That was getting kind of old.

"..wow," Lloyd said finally. "So you're basically screwed. In that case, can I have your portion?" Raine dug out her staff and nailed him over the head with an evil teacher snarl. Good ol' Professor.

Kratos looked a little guilty, yet at the same time triumphant that he'd found a weakness in my character. "Should I make something different?"

"No, don't worry about it," I sighed, flopping down on a log and digging around in my pack for some bread, meat, and condiments. "I'll just make a sandwich... I'll be fine." Since that little matter was now settled, the others dug in and Lloyd stole what would have been my bowl. Oh well.

Later that evening, I sat on the edge of the lake looking out at the water. It was chilly there, so I had a blanket from my pack wrapped around my shoulders, and was yet still managing to shiver. Damn cold air... Thinking a moment, I wondered how I would possibly survive when we got to Flanoir.

_That is, if I don't get killed in the Tower by either Remiel, Kratos, or Yggy... Or contract a deadly STD from Zelos Wilder. Eww._

That thought made me shiver harder.

"Hey." I looked up over my shoulder, Genis was standing there. Blinking in surprise, I adjusted my blanket and turned more to face him.

"Genis. What's up?"

"Ah, nothing." Genis plopped down on the bank beside me, a night breeze ruffling his silver locks. "Just checking up. You looked kinda lonely over here."

I chuckled lightly. "Eh, a little. Just thinking about what's ahead for us..." Genis turned his head to stare at me, sky-colored eyes wide and sparkling.

"Fortune-telling now?"

"Nope, I'd leave that to a half-elf..." I mentally hit myself in the head as Genis recoiled like I was something venomous.

"...y-you'd better not be talking about me!"

Sighing, I looked Genis' scared face over, then picked up a pebble and threw it in the lake. As the ripples died away, I cursed my lack of self-control around my mouth. _Damn. Damn damn damn. I don't have any choice but to tell him now..._

"Genis...look." I paused, wondering how exactly to word this so I wouldn't freak the kid out any more than he already was. "We both know that I know...a lot of things...and one of those is that you're a half-elf."

"No I'm not!" Genis turned red, getting up from the ground in preparation to walk away. My brain raced along with my heart as I quickly lunged up from the ground, using my blanket like a net. Dropping it right over top of Genis, I did a little mini-tackle on the thrashing squirming mound that was angry half-elf, and managed to pin him against my body.

Right before he kicked me in the chest. Oh dear Martel, OW.

"Genis, Genis, calm down-!" I struggled with the frantic twelve-year old for a minute more, and then his head popped out from the blanket. And he LUNGED at me. Can you believe that? The little monster tried to BITE ME. I just about screamed, and shot a quick look over at the fire. Amazing no one had come over to accuse me of child abuse or molestation yet.

Child molesting. Ew. Like I'd do that to Genis...

"Genis! Hey! Stop that! I don't care if you're a halfy or not!"

Genis paused in trying to bite my face, giving me a scrutinizing look. "...you mean that?"

"Uh-hunh. And if I put you down, will you not run away or bite me?" Genis nodded, so I carefully set him down and heaved a sigh in relief. Oh goodie, one crisis averted. "Like I said, I don't care. I prefer you as a half-elf, really, to an elf." Now Genis was transfixed.

"You do?"

"Yep. You've got powerful elfy powers and knowledge," I said, lightly poking his head, "But you've also got the kindness of a human heart." I then poked his chest. "There's no better mix, in my opinion."

Genis was practically glowing, a blush slowly spreading across his cheeks. "Wow. No one's ever told me that before..."

"Because people are stupid," I shrugged, gathering up my blanket and slinging it around my shoulders again. "Believe me, I get the same kind of rap you halfys do all the time. Where I come from, people really don't like me."

"They don't? How come?" Genis asked, tilting his head curiously to the side. I shrugged.

"Dunno, really... It perplexes me too." I suddenly yawned, a reminder that it was waaay past my bedtime and if I didn't go to sleep now, I wouldn't be able to function if Kratos tried to train me tomorrow. Bad thoughts, right there. Very bad. "...oof. I think it's time I turned in. Coming, Genis?"

"Nah," Genis said, shaking his head and throwing a small rock in the shallows of the water. "I'm not sleepy yet. Good night, Emily..."

"Good night, Genis," I yawned again, gathering up my blanket to trudge towards the fire, where I would then flop down onto my little makeshift bed and zonk out until tomorrow.


	10. We're in Hima! Finally

A/N: There is some sort of huge writing discrepancy in style here or something. I started writing this almost four years ago. ._. A lot's changed.

* * *

"I advise that you get up now, before I try other, less - than - humane tactics to get you out of bed."

My brain fuzzed. Was that Kratos? Ehh, who cared. Muttering something incomprehensible, I rolled over on my side and pulled all the blankets closer, aware of a furry lump beneath my head. Hmm, Noishe tail as pillow. Nice.

"Fine, have it your way. A morning dunking should wake the two of you right up..." If I'd been more awake and paying attention, I would've heard the slight evil chuckle that accompanied the above statement. But, being braindead and sleepy as I was, I didn't, and therefore wasn't aware of my impending doom.

Well, _too_ aware, anyway.

Seconds later, my sleepy mind registered the fact that I was apparently being dragged along the ground by my blankets. Wait, ground? No, it was rocks. Wait... No, it was something soft and scratchy. And, for some reason, strangely moist...

_That's because he's going to dump you into the lake, moron,_ the rational side of my head scolded, before sitting back and holding up an umbrella.

_No he isn't,_ the sleepy half retorted with all the stubbornness of Gnome, trying to resume a previous state of near - comatose slumber. _Kratos isn't that cold heart -_

_KER - SPLASH!_

"YAUGH!" I shot out of the water so fast I nearly left my clothes behind. Shaking and dripping, I scooted over to the ashes of last night's fire and tried to roast myself over them via stick.

"That's not going to work, you know," Kratos commented from nearby with a sort of cynical amusement, before glancing over at the lake. Lloyd still had yet to get splashed by an incoming wave, like I had. Lucky bastard. "I think I should hurry him along," the mercenary mock - sighed, like this was _such_ a painful procedure for him to go through every morning. Privately, I was willing to bet money that he got some sort of kick out waking us up in the most uncomfortable ways he could think of, but who knew with Kratos.

Down by the lake, the redhead whispered some words to the air, a small spell circle forming under his feet. The lake responded by suddenly rearing up due to a violent gust of wind, and then a fairly good - sized wave came crashing down upon poor sleepy Lloyd.

Now, I was also willing to bet that people in Tethe'alla heard him yelp, then curse everything from Aska to Shadow to kingdom come. On my end, the noise generated was enough to shake Raine, Genis, Colette, and Sheena out of slumber.

"What's going on?" Raine muttered blearily, reaching for her staff with one hand and rubbing her eyes with the other. Colette was staring at the beach with a mix of awe and horror, while Genis just stared blankly ahead for a moment before flopping backwards with a loud snore.

Sheena, however, was out of her blankets and had her cards out in the time it took to blink. That made me do a double - take, and then yawn.

"Chill out, Sheena. 's just Kratty waking Lloyd up with 'is usual sadistic tactics..."

"Oh." The ninja blinked once, then headed back to her bed. Did I mention it was earlier in the morning than most sane people should be up? Also, note the key word here. _Sane_. Sighing, I figured I should try to salvage what little bits left of sleep that I could when I remembered that my blankets were all still in the lake, and sopping wet to boot.

"Dammit!" I growled, marching past Colette back down towards the lake whilst checking to make sure my Hydra Dagger was still there. The blonde angel blinked twice in confusion, before speaking.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to beat the tar out of that no - good purple - wearing pansy - assed lake - dunking mercenary, for starters," I replied, watching Kratos issue some sort of lecture to Lloyd, no doubt about the values of waking up early or something. "Then I'm gonna steal someone else's blankets and go back to freakin' bed." Colette just nodded slowly. Being almost all angel and therefore unable to sleep, I figured she wasn't able to grasp how important my forty winks were to me.

But anyway. On to the slaughter. Hydra Dagger out, I flipped it around in my palm once before trotting down to the shore. I arrived just in time to witness the tail end of an argument between Lloyd and Kratos, on sleeping habits and why one should not be disturbed between the hours of nine and twelve PM. At least, that was what our resident dual - swordsman was defending.

And for the record, I wholly supported him on his stand. Down to the 'effin LETTER.

" - tos, why can't you at least wake me up like _normal_ people do?"

"And how would that be?" Kratos replied calmly, utterly unphased by this whole thing. Trotting down the beach, I took up a position next to Lloyd and pointed my dagger at the Offender of Sleep.

"Render him unconscious for the next forty - eight hours?"

Lloyd drew his swords with a cross between what looked like a smirk and evil glare. "You're dead, old man."

"I beg to differ - " Kratos began, then swiftly drew his sword to block Lloyd's opening strikes before taking off into the woods. Whooping like a pair of banshees on crack, we followed the mercenary waving our weapons in the air and calling him every single insult we could think of.

While we were unaware that the noise we were making was keeping everyone up, Raine tiredly grabbed a skillet and began to start breakfast.

----------

"Freakin' monotone mercenary! Hold STILL!" I snarled at Kratos, ducking under the blade of his sword, which was currently occupied with Lloyd. Dagger snaking forward, I made for a sideways jab to the ribs when Kratos reached over and shoved me right in the face. That in turn made me give out a muffled yelp, lose balance, and fall off the tree limb we were fighting on to the ground. On my already - injured face.

If I was Zelos Wilder right then I probably would've pouted and sicced the Pope on Kratty, but I was not a certain Chosen womanizer and therefore didn't have a problem. Well, aside from the fact that my nose was bleeding a little, but heck. Yanking a handkerchief from my pocket, I held it to my nose until the bleeding subsided, then dashed off after Lloyd and Kratos, still going at it in the trees.

Judging from the sparks flying around in the branches overhead, for all I knew they could've been trying to kill each other. Either way, I jumped to the nearest low branch I could find, suddenly noticing the amazing increase in my self performance. Musing on it for a moment, I was then reminded of my benefactor when the Demon's Heart gave a sickening 'thump' on my chest. Ah, right. Exsphere substitute. Moving on.

"Can't you think of a better way to _train_ us at least, y'old goat?" Lloyd hollered at the man barely inches away from his face, red - brown eyes narrowed with concentration. "'stead of trying to _kill_ us?"

"Need I remind you, you attacked first," Kratos replied placidly, before a small smirk flashed across his features. "And your guard is down." Quicker than my eye could follow, the Seraph jabbed his fingers into Lloyd's side and made him flail backwards with a loss of balance, before jumping swiftly away.

Wincing, I stood partially hidden in the shadows of the tree branches and watched as Lloyd windmilled wildly before falling backwards to land 'THUMP!' on the ground, winded and somehow without stabbing himself in the process.

"You okay?" I called down, quickly glancing around to make sure Kratos wasn't about to ambush me as I headed out onto the branch. Lloyd gave a pained grunt from down below, before gasping and starting to sit up. Hmm, he takes a headbutt from Iubaris with no problem, but Kratos knocking him off a tree takes him out, one - hit K.O. Some days I wondered about that boy.

"Lloyd is fine. He will have bruises, but he is fine."

I screamed and practically fell headfirst out of the tree again as Kratos magically appeared inches behind me on my same branch. Flailing around, I grabbed the branch overhead for stability with one hand and fumbled for my dagger with the other, whirling around to face that gat - danged sneaky seraph. And hope he didn't stab me in the gut or something. That would be bad, yes. "K - K - Kratos! Don't DO that to me, dammit!"

His one visible eyebrow quirking, Kratos looked quite amused as he glanced from me to the ground and Lloyd. Pausing a moment, he seemed to sigh, and then looked back in the direction of the camp. "As much fun as it is to knock you both around the forest all morning, I have better things to do," he said finally, cloak rustling as he shifted position. "So here's the deal. I am going back to camp. Raine is cooking breakfast. If you two beat me back, _I_ will do some cooking. You don't, you eat poison. See you in camp." And then, dangit, Kratty just _vanished_ from the tree.

I gaped, brain still processing that statement, before beginning to seriously wig out. I had _no_ wishes to repeat yesterday's experiences, thankyouverymuch. "LLOYD! Get UP, dammit! Kratty's trying to kill us!"

"...wha?" Lloyd asked muzzily, looking up at my tree. "Again...?"

"Well, indirectly this time, but whatever!" Leaping down to the ground, I raced over, snagged the ribbons on the back of Lloyd's shirt and then ran for my freakin' life whilst dragging the thrashing swordsman behind me.

----------

"...oh _shit_ no."

Because, my friends, as you might have guessed, Kratos was sitting there by the fire, looking smug and chowing down on what looked to be the remains of French toast. NORMAL French toast. Wheezing, I just stared at him for a moment before dropping Lloyd and hitting the dirt myself, totally drained. Right now, I didn't even think I had the energy to eat something. But that was a good thing, presumably.

The others just kinda stared at us. Both covered in leaves and twigs, scratched up, and now currently lying prone on the ground. There was a moment of silence, during which Genis got a stick and poked at Lloyd. Growling, the dual swordsman reached up to weakly swipe the offending stick away, and then went back to being a vegetable.

"...did you have a nice training session?" Colette asked finally, for lack of conversation starters. I mumbled something unintelligible under my breath. "...Professor, what did those words mean?"

Kratos chuckled quietly to himself, while the others stared at him. Sanctimonious bastard. "She says it went very well, Chosen."

I summoned up enough energy to weakly lift one hand and give Kratos The Finger. Everybody stared blankly at it.

"...and what does that mean?"

"Go get bent," I grumbled into the dirt. All the relevant members of our party stared for a second longer, while Kratos went back to ignoring our plight and started to pack up the campsite in preparation for the day's journey.

"...does that have some sort of special meaning where you come from?" Raine asked finally, curious as to any and all special knowledge about where I came from. Her voice had a tinge of its usual ruin mania to it, which instantly made me wary of lectures and/or long question and answer sessions. I hadn't had to undergo one of those yet, and I really didn't want to.

"Yeah, Raine. It means go out, get drunk, father some illegitimate children, and never pay child support," I said, scraping myself off the ground and looking blearily at the remains of whatever the Professor made for breakfast. I thought it might have been scrambled eggs, but I wasn't sure they were supposed to be bluish in tinge and have what appeared to be orange peels sprinkled over them. Since I was obviously not eating that for breakfast, I supposed I was just going to have to starve until lunch. While Raine was whipping out a notebook and writing down everything about the previous conversation we'd just had, I nudged at Lloyd with a toe. He was still facedown on the ground and seemed to be trying to merge with it. "Heeey. C'mon, might as well pack up our crap before Sir Angsty McEmo over there decides to leave us."

"What did you call me?"

"OH KIND AND GRACIOUS MASTER THAT WE LOVE SO VERY MUCH but not really," I yelled the first part and mumbled the second so low Genis and Colette could barely hear it, but they both dissolved into giggles anyway.

"I like that nickname," Genis snickered, reaching for his pack and pulling out a small notebook. I took that moment to pout that everyone seemed to have notebooks but me. "That's definitely going on The List."

"There's a list?"

"Yep," the half - elf mumbled absently, busy scribbling. "I'll show you later."

"We wrote it after we left Triet!" Colette added brightly, giggling. "It was Genis' idea."

"I want to see this list," Sheena said, leaning over Genis' shoulder to look at his book. Genis abruptly snapped it shut and hugged it to his chest.

"I _said_ I'd show you later! Leave me alone,"

"Sheeeesh, touchy," Sheena made a face down at him, before looking over at me. "Oh by the way, I fished your blankets and stuff out of the lake. They're on the tree over there," she pointed over to a small sapling strewn with blankets on the lower limbs. "I figured they'd dry out faster."

"You are the world's best ninja," I said, checking to make sure everything was in my pack before trotting over to retrieve my bedding. It was only slightly damp, and I figured if I folded it loosely enough it would be able to dry out the rest of the way in my pack. Tossing the cloth in the air to fluff it out, I folded it and tucked it away in my bag before reaching for Lloyd's blankets. They were a little damper, so I dangled them from an arm's length as I headed back towards the others. Lloyd still hadn't moved, and Genis had resorted to poking him with a stick while Colette watched.

"I think he's dead,"

"No! Lloyd can't be dead! We need him to finish the trip!"

"I bet we'd move a lot faster if he was dead,"

"Your ass would be grass if he was dead," I snorted dryly, dropping the swordsman's damp blankets on top of his head. Perhaps it was the wetness of the cloth that made his body respond; Lloyd's legs twitched for a second.

Genis made a face at me. "Nu - uh. We'd survive without Lloyd just fine."

"We have Mister Kratos and the Professor and now Sheena," Colette added, smiling as she checked the contents of her bag to make sure everything was in place.

"Would you please stop talking about me like I'm not even here?" Lloyd groaned from underneath his blankets. Genis, Colette, and I all scrambled to our feet with pretend shrieks.

"EGADS, IT'S ALIIIIIIVE,"

Lloyd made a sort of disgusted grunting noise and flailed his arm weakly at us for a second before going limp again. "I hate you all."

"Good news Lloyd, we hate you too," I informed him, stuffing my blankets in my pack and hoisting it on my back. "We'll be sure to send you a postcard when we get to Hima." With that, I tromped off whistling for Noishe. Screw walking and exercise, I was tired and I was going to ride the rest of the way to Hima.

From behind me, I caught the tail end of Colette's reassurances to Lloyd that nobody really hated him and that yes, we were going to wait for his lazy ass to get up and move.

But not in those exact terms, of course.

------

By now, I was paranoid.

We had gone a whole day -- _a whole day_ -- without getting jumped by monsters. I couldn't believe it. I'm sure the others thought I was high on some kind of drug, what with the way I was twitching around on Noishe, fidgeting and squirming and trying to look in all directions at once. The protozoan let out an annoyed whine, curling his lip to suggest that if I didn't cut it the heck out, I was going to be eating dirt.

Finally, Sheena broke the wall of snickering and stares. "If you don't mind my asking, _what_ is your problem?" I answered in the only way I knew how.

"WHY AREN'T WE DEAD YET?" I hollered, making Noise jump and yelp. The entire group as a whole deadpan stared at me.

"...shouldn't you be glad you're alive?" Lloyd asked after a moment, looking at me like I was going to pull my dagger and slit my wrists any minute now. "You're not suicidal or anything, are you?"

"Oh my goddess, Lloyd knows the word _suicide_ - " Genis squealed when a certain red - clad swordsman thwacked him over the head a second later.

"Shut it, Genis!"

Colette was doing that thing where she clenched her fists and nervously wrung them in front of her. "Lloyd's right! We should all be happy that we're alive! The Goddess wouldn't be happy if we died,"

"Woah woah woah. Before this turns into a theological discussion and no, I am _NOT_ suicidal," I added sharply to Lloyd, who made a face at me, "What I mean is: Where are all the fucking monsters?!"

Raine stopped walking for a moment and looked back, a thoughtful expression crossing her face. "You're right. This is rather unusual," she mused, in a way that suggested her brain was already forming several hypothesises to this problem. Her gaze then flicked to the rest of us, looking fairly reminiscent of one who is trying to decide what makes the best live bait. Noishe instantly whined and slunk behind Kratos for protection, bringing me along with him.

I tried to avoid wetting myself in accordance to the icy death glares the mercenary was shooting at me. Like I was going to try and glomp him again, really. I kinda liked having a spleen and everything.

Lloyd and Genis instantly recognized the look the Professor was giving them. Rather prudently, they grabbed Colette and hid behind Sheena, who stared warily between them and Raine, not quite sure what was going on with this picture.

"Ms. Sage." Kratos' icy tone broke the silence. "As fascinating as it is that nothing has yet appeared today to hinder our journey, we really must be moving on before something _does_ happen."

For a second, Raine looked at him like she was going to pummel him with her staff and give him a lecture about the importance of not hindering learning, but then apparently what shreds of common sense she had left took over. "You're right. Come on, Hima's not very far away now."

"And neither is the darkness," Kratos observed dryly, striding forward again to resume his spot at the head of the group. Chastised and somewhat disappointed, Raine followed, along with Sheena and then the very cautious bundle of Lloyd, Genis, and Colette. Noise was prancing along beside Kratos, occasionally reaching over to shove his wet nose down his collar. The mercenary did not look very amused.

After a second, a revelation hit me. "Hey, wait. It's Sunday, isn't it?"

"...it's what?"

_Orite. Different calendar days here in Sylvarant. Bugger._ Frowning, I screwed up my face and tried to think. _So what would be their equivalent of a Sunday?_

My brain responded after a moment with a big, merry 'fuck you'. I mentally returned the favor, before turning to the greatest source of knowledge in the group. "Hey Raine, what's the first day of a week here?"

The Professor blinked at me.

"...what day do you go to church on?"

"Devout followers of Martel attend services everyday," Colette replied, her expertise in matters of the church being a little higher than that of Raine. "However, most of the more important services are held every Origin's Day."

"Origin's Day?" I asked, probably regretting the flood of information that might follow.

"The Day of Origin, or Origin's Day, celebrates the day the world was first created by the Goddess Martel," Colette spouted, almost parrotlike. "It is also the day that the Tower of Salvation first appeared."

"Coincidentally, the end of the Kharlan War and the regeneration of Sylvarant by the Chosen Spiritua also fall on this day," Raine added, looking thrilled that someone was interested in doing some learning on this trip. "The Day of Origin is a highly important day for devout followers of Martel."

"Does it come once a year or what?" I mumbled, before my mouth could get the message to shut up and stop asking.

"Why yes, it does. Festivities last all day, and they are simply _fantastic._"

"Thanks Professor, 's all I needed to know," I muttered into Noishe's neck fur before she could go off on some huge religious rant on me. This apparently meant I was the only one judging my time in calendar days, and I didn't even know what their calendar was like. Oh bugger. I was evidently going to be asking some more timekeeping questions later.

Up ahead, the tall grass and sparse trees gave way to a rockier surface as the mountain trail that housed Hima loomed into view. And unlike the game, it's not some smooth little gravel slope that you just trot on up - Oh no, it's fairly steep and lined with these angry, jagged looking rocks. Adventurers must have been nuts to build a town up here. I took one look at it and my face fell when Noishe bunched up his shoulders like he was going to buck me off. Looks like I would have to scramble my own way up to Hima.

And scramble we did! Oh lordie, you should've seen us.

"Why the hell couldn't they maintain this stupid pathway better?" I groused to the air, scrambling over a large rock and then trying not to faceplant when the ground suddenly dropped down two feet. "Who the fuck builds a town on the side of a mountain anyway?"

"Hima _is _the town of adventurers," Raine pointed out, picking her way delicately over a line of converging stones. "I imagine only the adventurous sort would come up here."

"Well those 'adventurous sort' must've been hit by one too many rocks on their way up here," I muttered, panting as I scrabbled my way along and tried not to slip on loose gravel. "Couldn't even maintain their own freakin' pathway."

"I think that's sort of the _point_," Genis snapped, before he suddenly tripped over a rock and went down on his face while at the same time grabbing for Lloyd's ribbons for balance. Lloyd yelped and made a noise like a dying Chocobo when he was suddenly yoinked backwards, windmilling his arms in the air wildly for balance.

"Geniiiis! Let go! You're strangling me,"

I made a face at their stupidity and kept climbing.

"The view is pretty from up here, isn't it?" Colette commented, looking down through the slight cloudy mist at the vista below. Since Colette was an angel, she had wings, and therefore she could fly over this rocky hell. Lucky bitch. I myself made no comment, because I was deathly scared of heights and if I looked down over the edge, I would probably freeze up and/or go splat down the side of the mountain.

"Yes, indeed. I hear you can get an excellent view of the Tower of Salvation from the top of this mountain," Raine nodded, using her staff in place of a walking stick to help her keep her balance while climbing. "Colette dear, do you think you could tell us when we're getting close to Hima?"

"Sure Professor! I can see it right now," Colette chirped cheerfully, pointing up the path. "Mister Kratos and Sheena are almost there!"

Ah yes, Kratos and Sheena. You may notice that I haven't mentioned them for a while. Well, from the minute we started climbing up this godforsaken path, they've been competing to see who is the Ultimate Ninja. Or not really, but I don't know anymore. Sheena took off up the hill using her mad ninja skills, probably because she's so freakin' worried about Pietro, and Kratos took off after her because...I dunno. Maybe he's paranoid she's going to murder Pietro or something. Or set up a trap to try and kill us once we heal Pietro. Either way, they were out of sight in thirty seconds and we haven't seen them since.

Besides, it's not like we're going to get attacked by monsters or bandits on this path, ononevar. Dammit Kratos, get back here.

Finally, like a vision of paradise, the large building that served as an inn and Everything Else in Hima loomed before us, along with the ground gradually getting less steep. Panting in relief, I trudged my way up to nice flat ground, and flopped on my arse at Kratos and Sheena's feet. "Oh Martel, I don't ever wanna do that again."

"You will have to if you want to leave the mountain," Kratos informed in a toneless voice. I'm sure all the color drained from my face.

"Oh fuck _that_, man. I'm just gonna throw myself over the edge and hope I survive when I splat on the ground howevermany seconds later."

Kratos made an irritated 'hmph' sort of noise, turning his attention to Raine and Colette as they came into view. Colette was helping the Professor over the last few rocks and up the hill, her wings having been retired into her back so as not to attract too much attention. That made almost our entire little group reassembled, but there was a notable lack of Genis and Lloyd.

So Sheena stated the obvious. "Hey, where are the other guys?"

In the moment of silence that followed, I scooted over to the edge of the path and looked down, trying to ignore the slightly dizzy feeling that came over me as I did so. There among the rocks was a blue and white blob on the back of a red blob. Cupping my hands to my mouth, I yelled down. "HEY! WHAT'S THE HOLDUP?"

"GENIS SPRAINED HIS ANKLE FALLING OVER THAT ROCK!" Lloyd hollered back, sounding slightly winded in the process. I guess he wasn't fully over almost being strangled. "GONNA COME HELP?"

"HELL NO," I yelled back down, when I was aware of maybe three death glares boring into the back of my head. Looking backwards, I was particularly struck by the evil eyes of Raine, who looked like she would punt me back down the hill if I didn't go and help her precious baby brother. "I MEAN, UH - aw shit, c'mon guys. Why don't you send Colette? She can fucking _fly_."

Glare.

"I don't mind going," Colette piped up after a second, therefore saving my ass from getting kicked down the mountain. Trotting to the edge of the path, the blonde extended her wings and fluttered off on her rescue mission while the others just glared at me in a way that clearly said 'LEARN FROM HER SELFLESSNESS'.

I don't ever want to be as selfless as Colette, because then that means I would DIE. I would like to take a few more turns around the sun or...whatever they have here, thankyouverymuch.

So we all just stood (or in my case, sat) around while they hated on me. Aw guys, don't hate on me, really. You all saw how much I sucked at climbing up those rocks, c'mon. I'd probably kill myself trying to go back down to help.

"Here they are!" Colette announced cheerfully as she fluttered back into view, once again saving me, this time from the agony of endless death glares. The blonde fluttered down to earth holding Genis in her arms, whom she carried over to Raine so the frothing half – elf could carry out a quick preliminary examination of how bad his injury was. Lloyd came panting his way up soon after to flop belly first on the ground next to me with a loud groan.

After a moment of meditative thought, I prodded him in the side with a finger.

"I swear I'm going to break that, whatever it is," Lloyd mumbled into the dirt, lifting his head up fractionally a few inches to glare at me out of the corner of his eye. I recoiled, dramatically clasping my hand over my heart in a mock swoon.

"Oh Lloyd, how you wound me so! …seriously man, quit glaring at me." _…before I develop some sort of complex or something. Aaaaaagh._

"I believe I shall secure us some rooms at the inn," Kratos informed Raine, ignoring any and all other shenanigans going on within his vicinity. "As well as ascertain the whereabouts of Pietro."

"I'll go on ahead and check on him quick," Sheena chipped in, before she dashed off in a blur of purple. Kratos whuffed a little, before grabbing some of our bags and coolly striding off towards the inn with Noishe following him.

"Well, it looks like all you need is a little rest, Genis," Raine informed her little brother, after poking and prodding at his ankle for several moments. "Let's head on into the inn and deal with Pietro, shall we?"

"Oh, I do hope he's still doing all right," Colette fretted as our little group drudged our way over towards the inn. Despite how small the area looks in the game, it's actually pretty big. The plateau of rock that makes up Hima is wider, and the path leading up towards the graveyard and even to the summit is much steeper and fuller of gravel. I had to wonder how they managed to shuttle people up there when they wanted to bury someone. Maybe they pushed them off the roof onto a flatter part of the trail. But yes, Colette speaking and worrying and angsting as usual about the fate of the world and everyone in it. "We got so caught up in seal breaking and Luin, he could be dead by now… That would be so awful! And it'd be all my fault…"

"It wouldn't be your fault, dear," Raine assured her as she guided Colette and Genis up the stairs, supporting her little brother with one arm. Lloyd and I slowly flailed along after them, too tired to say much or even care. I was covered in two inches of dirt, I wanted a bath. "I'm sure we'll be able to save him now."

Thusly, our poor bedraggled party streamed into the inn. Kratos was chatting quietly at the counter with the clerk when we emerged into the lobby, and he didn't even give us a second glance as we all trudged up the stairs to the second floor. I had never been here before in my life, obviously, and thus I had underestimated the amount of stairs it takes to go up a level in this place. The game lets you zip up them lickity split, but not here. Geez there must've been like forty of the bastards, and I groaned every time I took a step. I had no idea how Raine was managing to haul Genis up along with her. Colette, obviously, was not very bothered with the no – pain thing going on. I glanced back once to see Lloyd pulling himself up by the stair rail and grumbling something, though I couldn't quite catch what it was.

Eventually we got up onto the second floor, staggered down the hallway, and headed into Pietro's room. Sheena, no surprise, was already there and chatting with his caretaker about his condition. "There you all are," she said, whirling about when we entered and striding over. "He hasn't gotten worse, but he also hasn't gotten better, either."

"That's good, I suppose," Raine said, letting Genis down on a chair so he could sit and rest his ankle before she headed over to Pietro's bed, pulling out Boltzman's book as she did so.

"Is that it? The healing technique? Can you finally heal Pietro?" The girl asked hopefully, flitting around on the other side of the bed and staring at Raine as the professor flipped through the book, humming thoughtfully to herself. I had half a mind to tell her that running back and forth chirping like an injured bird wasn't going to make the process go any faster.

Raine was silent, staring at something on the page for a long time before she shook her head a little and shut it. "I'm sorry," she said, lifting her head to give the anxious girl a sad smile. "The technique is in here, but I'm afraid I'm not skilled enough yet to learn it. I still lack a few of the items."

"So you can't heal him?" I stared hard at this girl, trying to remember her name from the game. It really sucked when there was a lack of floating speech bubbles containing all the pertinent information you needed to know. Raine, meanwhile, shook her head again.

"No. I promise that I will be able to heal him. Just help him hold on a little longer." The Professor tucked Boltzman's book lovingly back into her pack, while the others just stared at her a bit. Raine Sage, not able to heal someone? What blasphemy was this?

I smothered back a yawn and let the script unfold. No sense in rushing things along too much, I was tired as hell and didn't want to jump back into the world of battles and butt – kicking right now.

"So this guy… He escaped from the Asgard Human Ranch, right?" Lloyd asked from where he was sitting next to Genis' chair, crosslegged on the floor. Genis mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like 'DUH', and Lloyd made a face at him.

"Oh… Yes, he did. It's how he got this curse," the girl whose name I cannot remember said, crossing her arms and looking particularly sad for a moment.

"Did he say anything specific when he got here?" Sheena asked, tilting her head to the side. "About how he got out? Was he carrying anything on him?"

"Well, um…" The room went silent for a moment as nameless girl folded her head into her chest for a moment, apparently deep in thought about what conspired that day. Raine and Sheena leaned forward a bit to listen more intently, while Genis and Lloyd yawned at the same time and slumped so that Genis was resting his arm on Lloyd's head. I decided the floor might not be such a bad place myself and promptly flopped, my legs folding under me like a lawn chair. "That day… He said he came out from the yard of the ranch, I think. And… something about a boulder. He used a boulder to block the exit?"

"A boulder..." Raine looked like she was considering something for a moment. Sheena was nodding at this new bit of information.

"Did he say anything else?"

"No, that was all before he collapsed." The girl gave Pietro a worried look for a moment, reaching over to smooth out some nonexistent wrinkles in his sheets.

"Did we even see a boulder when we were there?" Genis asked, still leaning on Lloyd's head. The other boy shrugged, yawning and pausing when he finally realized that someone was using him for an armrest.

"Hey, gitoff Genis - !"

"Hello mister Kratos!" Colette chirped suddenly, three seconds before the door swung open and said swordsman entered the room. The bunch of us looked at the angel strangely, while she herself seemed blissfully unaware of our scrutiny. "Did you hear about the ranch?"

"Yes, I heard. And yes, there was something a bit unnatural when we went there," Kratos said, cutting off Raine as she opened her mouth and then shut it again. "Though I find it hard to imagine how we could have completely missed a boulder."

For a second there, it looked like some sort of argument was going to break out between everyone who cared to question Kratos' observation and Kratos himself, but nameless girl over there in the corner made a quiet little noise and spoke up again, fiddling with her dress for a moment. "Um. There is…also this," leaning down, she pulled open a drawer and dug around in it to pull out a small orb. It was a bit larger than a softball, easily taking up the palm of someone's hand. It was also a translucent black in color, with transparent purple flecks that seemed to float through the center of it. "Pietro was hiding this from the Desians."

And there, finally, was the all important Desian Orb. In an odd way, it was strangely beautiful, with the sparkling floating specks throughout the black miasma. I didn't particularly want to touch it, though. "Professor, do you think it has something to do with the ranch?" Colette asked, gently tugging on Raine's sleeve. The professor looked a bit surprised for a second, before nodding her head.

"Yes… Yes, it may very well be. Do you mind if we take it with us?" She asked, while nameless girl looked a bit surprised and hesitant, her hands closing more tightly around the orb. "We want to infiltrate the ranch and rescue the people of Luin held there. That may be very important to completing our goal."

"Please, please let us borrow it!" Colette chimed in, doing the cute little fretting and hand – shaking thing she does when a touch of angelic charm is required. "We'll take good care of it!"

"…very well. I hope it helps you," nameless girl said finally, handing over the orb to Raine. I wondered for a moment if there was something about the thing we couldn't see, because the Professor shuddered for a second and very quickly tucked the orb into her pack. "Please come back soon and heal Pietro,"

"I will as soon as I am able," Raine promised, which prompted a mass exodus from Pietro's sickroom. Soon we were all crowded out into the hall, standing around wondering what to do. Through the fog of my brain, I leaned against the wall and listened to Raine and Kratos have a quick adultlike discussion on how best to proceed with the knowledge we had garnered. I gathered the phrases 'rest for the night', 'plan carefully', 'leave in the morning', and 'manage time efficiently'.

See if you can guess who said what in that conversation, I dare you.

"The rooms are down the hall," Kratos said finally, which is the only thing the teenage members of our group paid attention to. I pushed myself up off the wall as Lloyd slogged past with Colette, the two of them holding Genis up to escort him to his room. As I slimed my way after them, I couldn't help but notice Sheena exchange a few words with Raine and slip back into Pietro's room with her. Perhaps they were trying to get more details out of the lady, or perhaps they were trying to think of another cure for him. Gradually I also became aware of Kratos walking behind me due to the distinct sound of clinking weapons and leather, though he headed down the stairs again and out the door. My guess was that he was going to bitch to Noishe about us and our stupidity.

Although, what did I care about him and his personal agenda? I had my own needs to take care of, the first of which was screaming SLEEP at me. Then BATH, and then FOOD. I'm not quite sure why my brain works the way it does.

Colette, it seemed, was still in the boys' room when I headed into ours, although her stuff had already been deposited in there on a bed. Taking the opposite one, I took a moment to drop my back and shove it under the bed before collapsing on top of the mattress, letting my exhausted body sink into unconsciousness.

--

I managed to sleep into the evening with a few hours nap, and when I woke up it was business as usual at an inn. I managed to get in my bath before dinner, and sat at the table with a towel around my neck for my damp hair to rest on while our group devoured the chow and observed the other travelers sitting at the table. Apparently there were other people nutty enough to climb that rocky hell trail to get up here, as a small group of so called 'adventurers' sat down at the end of the table swapping stories with each other rather noisily and with copious amounts of beer. The Bunch (as I liked to think of us) of Lloyd, Genis, Colette, and I, listened to them with half an ear and occasionally made faces.

One guy happened to be boasting about riding from Asgard to Hima on the back of a giant praying mantis monster we occasionally encountered. Lloyd took the liberty of pretending to be a bug and gnawing on Genis' head, at least until Raine reached over to give his ribbons a tug and got him to sit the heck down properly and eat his dinner like a good boy.

And as usual, Kratos said nothing and ate little. Nothing really worth commenting on, because that's just how he is. Though I did notice Colette doing a good job of trying to hide the fact that nothing on her plate had actually been touched by pushing things around with her fork and making them into smaller mounds. I felt a bit sorry for her, but what was I supposed to do? We couldn't bring Noishe in here for her to pass her meals off on.

After dinner, we were all free to flee from Raine and her dreaded homework in pursuit of more interesting things. More specifically, Genis' List. I was dying to see this, for serious. And so was Sheena, though she was masking her curiosity reasonably well.

"Hi guys!"

I somehow managed to avoid slamming my head on the ceiling when Lloyd's head appeared outside our window, with Sheena and Colette looking up from whatever book the blonde angel was showing her. "Lloyd what are you _doing_,"

"You guys wanted to see The List, right? We thought it'd be more private out here!" He chirped back, grinning a bit before scrabbling his fingers on our window. "Geez, why d'ya have it locked?"

"In case you've forgotten, there's a creeper who has a habit of coming in through windows," I replied dryly, unhooking the latch and shoving up the sill to display Lloyd in all his fresh – air glory. The brunette frowned a bit in memory, before shaking his head and moving out of the way.

"Well, c'mon. Genis is up here," floated his voice from somewhere above our room, out of my sight range. I bit my lip a bit nervously, sticking my head out to take stock of the roof. There was a good bit there and it wasn't steep, and there appeared to be a bit of that stone path nearby that lead up to the graveyard. Easy fire escape, at least. I had climbed on a few roofs in my time, so I carefully climbed out and up around the window to where Lloyd and Genis were sitting on the top of the building. Behind me, Sheena helped Colette out through the window, and soon enough our group was all assembled around the little half – elf.

"Listplz,"

"Fine, fine. But you can't look at any of the other pages," Genis grumbled, slowly unclasping the book he was hiding close to his chest and flipping through it. Judging from the manner he was treating it, I hazarded a guess that this was Genis' personal journal he was about to show us. Wow, that took guts. "Here it is."

Sheena and I promptly crowded around him and stuck our heads over his shoulders to look. The book was small and had plain, lined pages, covered with a somehow neat childish scrawl that was somewhat close to printing. Raine had certainly drilled Genis on his penmanship, that was for sure, but as a bonus it made his writing very easy to read.

_The List (as compiled by Genis, Colette, and Lloyd!)_

Below that, a messy, almost unintelligible scribble. _Because Kratos is a dick!_

Slowly, Sheena and I looked up and over at Lloyd, who just sat there and blinked at us. "What?" We just stared at him a moment longer, before going back to reading the list of entries.

_-Dick_

"You're really fixated on that word, aren't you Lloyd?" I asked dryly over my shoulder. I didn't see his confused look, apparently Lloyd's poor memory extended to making fun of Kratos.

"He kept trying to write in my book," Genis grumbled as the brunette swordsman scuttled over to refresh his memory on this mysterious word we were referring to. "I had to whack him with my kendama."

"And that hurt a lot Genis," Lloyd whined, plunking his head down on top of his white – haired friend's so that he could see. "Now what is this wor - I am not!"

Given the way Genis had started flailing to remove the teenage weight from his skull, I guessed there would be a limited amount of time to finish reading this thing and dove right back into it.

_-Mr Fluffy_

_-Bastard_

_-Kratoast_

_-The Brick_

_-"…"_

_-Kratty_

I raised an eyebrow. Apparently Genis was leeching all his good names from me now. Well, it was pretty easy to see when I joined the party, at any rate.

_-Purple-wearing pansy-assed lake-dunking mercenary_

_-Sir Angsty McEmo_

And then Genis managed to headbutt Lloyd in the throat, which sent him sprawling backwards with a gasp and Genis snatching up his precious book again to snap it shut and scuttle away. "Okay, viewing session over now!"

"Aw, Genis. Yer stealin' all my names," I pointed out. "And 's not a very long list. Why don't we think of a few more?"

"Yeah!" Lloyd popped up again, massaging his throat but looking remarkably chipper despite the sudden hit. "Where is Kratos, anyway?"

There was a moment of collective silence, during which we all looked around as if he was going to pop up from under a roof shingle somewhere. "I'm not sure it'd be very nice to make fun of Mr. Kratos," Colette spoke up after a moment, looking almost a little guilty. I felt slight revulsion from her selfless confidence not allowing her even the slight pleasure of making up some harmless nicknames for Mr. Fluffy down there. Or wherever the hell he was.

"We're not making _fun_ of him, Colette, we're just," Lloyd paused and looked around for someone to finish his explanation.

"Giving him memorable nicknames?" Sheena suggested after a moment to fill in the gap. The Chosen still looked uncertain, but she nodded slowly after a moment and gazed out off the roof in the direction of the Tower of Mana. The light on the roof wasn't exactly great anymore with the sun setting off in the distance, and the light mist floating in the sky obscured the tower. I wondered if Colette could see it with her advanced angelic sight.

"_Okay!_ I've got a new name for him," Lloyd started, as Genis sighed and fished around for a pen and some ink in the little bag he'd brought with him.

"If it's another variation of 'dick', Lloyd – "

"Wait, he came up with _variations_?"

"I am not – uh, what was that word again…"

"Fixated,"

"…yeah, that. I am _not_ fixated with that word!"


	11. The Asgard Ranch, finale

A/N: Hi guys, I swear I still write fanfiction. I spent all summer writing this one and I am so glad it's over with, you have no idea. Hopefully we'll have a little more smooth sailin' 'round here for a while!

(seriously don't bother me about this chapter or I will _maim_ you)

* * *

"Whatever you do from this point on, remember to be _quiet."_

The rest of us nodded silently at Kratos' hissed edict. We were all crouched amongst the bushes once more in the woods near the Asgard ranch, adorned with leaves and branches to avoid being seen. Except this time, we weren't waiting to ambush a Desian patrol to get into the ranch. No, this time, we were looking for a giant rock.

"_Uuugh, Professor. Why are we getting up so early?"_

"_Because we have a long walk ahead of us, and we want to reach Luin by nightfall. Hurry and get ready, you two,"_

"_Do we even get breakfast?"_

"_We're going to eat on the run. Come on, everyone else is already up and ready to go."_

"_I bet you Emily's not up yet,"_

"_Sheena and Colette dragged her downstairs half an hour ago. Now get up,"_

"_Waugh-!"_

"I seeee a boulder," I whispered softly, knowing the two angels of our group would hear me. Partially hidden by the overgrowth of vines and thunked quite firmly in front of the remains of what looked like a sewage grate, a large rock mocked us from across the clearing. From over on the side, Kratos' head tilted slightly, checking to see if there were any guards about.

"I think we are safe," he said in a voice so quiet I barely heard him. A few of the others seemed to give a sigh of relief from sitting still for a while in itchy plants.

"Maaaaaaan. This is so boring," Lloyd grumbled, stretching his arms out as he yawned, and then nearly got a fist stuffed in his mouth seconds later as Kratos reached over, grabbed him, and yoinked him over next to his side so fast all we saw was a purple blur and a muffled "eep!"

"I told you to be quiet. Now keep still," the mercenary grunted, giving Lloyd a tug to get him to stop squirming and flailing around. Lloyd eventually slumped with silent grumbles, a rather annoyed look on his face. After Kratos and Raine exchanged glances with each other, the redhead rose like a silent shadow and dragged Lloyd swiftly with him across the clearing towards the boulder.

Raine gestured to the rest of us with her staff, slinking out of the greenery and across the clearing with light, quiet steps. Shedding bits of bushes and leaves, the remaining four of us rose to follow her, rather like baby ducklings in a line. Genis was right after his sister, followed by Colette, then me, and then Sheena. We all had our weapons out in case of an emergency, though there was the general hope that no Desians would come streaming out the gates at us.

Kratos and Lloyd had worked to quickly chip away at the vines enshrouding the boulder, and most of the rock had come into view by the time all of us had assembled around it. What followed was then the general consensus of 'hurr how does we move rock?' It was a _huge_ boulder, twice the height of Kratos and then some. Kratos was a pretty solid six feet, plus or minus an inch, so that should provide some idea about how big this damn rock was.

Obviously, we weren't just going to walk up and shove it out of the way.

"I think this is the biggest damn rock I've ever seen in my life," I mumbled, running my hands over the craggy gray stone and feeling the chips where Lloyd and Kratos had cut away the vines. Gradually, the total silence behind me began to register as unnatural, so I turned around to see everyone staring at me again. Holy crap, but this was staring to get old. "Uh, guys? Why are you looking at me like that,"

Lloyd exchanged glances with Genis, Colette, and Sheena. "We're waiting for you to move it?" He offered. This was backed up by Raine's eager face, and of course Kratos had no expression whatsoever. Except for maybe his default setting of impatience and irritation, he had that in spades.

I blinked at him. "You're kidding, right?" He had to be. The rock, it was _massive_. I was tiny, weak, and lacking in creativity at the moment. Seriously, all you had to do in the game was get the stupid Orb, walk up to the rock, select the rock, and it would move over. Here we were, all clustered around the boulder with the Orb in our possession, and it was staying rather firmly rooted in the ground. Also, everyone was still staring at me.

"Not… really? I mean, you always have all the plans and stuff." Lloyd rubbed the back of his head, looking to Genis for confirmation of this. The little sorcerer nodded in agreement. "Like how we should fight guardians, and where to go, and how we got in the ranch."

"You know how we can get in again, don't you?" Oh god, here came Colette with the puppydog eyes and the little fist-shaking thing she does when she's upset. "If we don't hurry, more people will die!"

_I am completely aware of that, thank you._ "I, uh, have to think for a second," I mumbled, turning away from everyone and back to the giant rock again. Looking at all those pleading and hopeful, expectant faces was not doing my brain any favors in thinking. I do not think well when the pressure is on. _Friggin' Namco designers, couldn't they have elaborated on how this was supposed to work?_

So my instinct took over. The first thing it said was that I needed the Orb. I had the Orb. Okay. The next logical course of action was that there had to be some keyhole somewhere that I could stick the Orb in, which would maybe activate some lever, which would maybe move this goddamn boulder. So I searched for a keyhole.

The others must have thought I was crazy, what with the way I was groping that rock and sticking my fingers into anywhere I could get them.

"Gotta be somethi – " I paused around near the back left of the rock, running my fingers up and down. It was a little dark back there with the shade from the trees and the boulder, so I couldn't see what I was feeling; but my fingers ran around the edge of a distinctly smooth, circular groove. "Hey, Genis. D'ya think I could get some light back here?" I asked, taking a step back from the rock while keeping my fingers pressed into place so I wouldn't lose the spot. "I think I mighta found something."

"Uuuh, sure." Genis separated from the crowd and came over, the end of his kendama tapping in a steady beat. It didn't take long for the top ball to burst into flames, casting a flickering light over the depression in the rock. I stared at it. So did Genis. "What _is_ that?"

"What is it? I wanna see!" Lloyd, being tall and curious, managed to squish his way in there and look over our shoulders at our discovery. "Are you talking about that hole?"

"I don't think it's a hole," I muttered, running my fingers over it a last time to make a comparison. Worn perfectly smooth, spanning about the width of a softball. Sounded like a perfect fit for the Desian Orb. "I think we need to stick the Orb in here."

That was Raine's cue to come forward, her fingers clutching nervously at the outer edges of her bag as the rest of us stepped back to give her room. I noticed she seemed exceedingly wary when it came to retrieving the object in question, and she downright grimaced when she pulled it out and held it in her hand. "Professor, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she grumbled through gritted teeth. "Where do I need to put it?"

Genis pointed to the hole, since he was still standing close by and providing the light source. His sister brushed by him and practically shoved the Orb into the space, although she seemed rather dismayed to find that she actually had to hold it in place. The groove wasn't so deep as to let the Desian Orb just sit in it. Since I had done my part here and I had no idea what to do now, I just decided to relax, look natural, and let plot events unfold. Whatever happened after this would be as much of a mystery to me as it was to them.

What happened was nothing. For a minute, anyway. Then Raine squeaked, the Desian Orb glowed bright purple, the rock shuddered violently, and then it was repelled sideways to reveal a hidden sewer grate with broken bars.

My raised eyebrows were not a symbol of false surprise, even though I knew what was supposed to be behind there. "Oh snap."

Everyone gave me an odd look except Raine and Genis. Raine gave a shuddering gasp and dropped the Orb, which rolled sideways through the bars of the grate and doooown into the darkness. Nobody dived after it in a panic, which was just as well. We didn't need it anymore, and Genis was too busy fussing over his sister to notice. "Raine? Raine, what's wrong?"

"Oh, Professor! You should sit down," Colette fretted, taking hold of her arms and helping Genis sit Raine up against the boulder. "You don't look so well."

"I will secure the tunnel. Keep watch for Desians," Kratos announced quietly, before he vanished down into the sewer with a swirl of his cloak. Nobody really noticed him except for Lloyd, who looked torn between worry for his teacher and worry for that asshole. Somehow, seeing Raine surrounded by everybody else meant that worry for that asshole won out, and he ducked down into the sewer after Kratos.

I snorted quietly. Clearly, Lloyd's hero-worship of Kratos was beginning to show. This also meant that I was the only one who had paid attention to the 'watch for Desians' order. Even Sheena had gone to see what was wrong with Raine, who was still looking a bit pale. After a quick look around the clearing, I determined that whatever the Desians were doing, they didn't give two shits about us at the moment. That meant if Kratos found the tunnel nicely secure, then the ranch infiltration was a go.

So I too scuttled over to see what was wrong with Raine. Call me a sadist, but I was curious as to why the Orb seemed to cause her so much pain. The Professor was smart, she surely would know. At the very least, she had already given Genis some sort of instruction, because he was rummaging around in her bag. I settled in between Colette and Sheena and watched as Genis pulled out an orange gel that he practically shoved at his sister. "Here sis, will this help?"

"Yes Genis, I believe it will." Raine took the gel with a shaking hand and choked it down, before settling back against the boulder again and sighing. I noticed color beginning to return to her face after a minute, which meant something beneficial had just happened here. Orange gels restored… well, they didn't call it TP in real life. Mana? Magic? Mana, I think. Had the Desian Orb drained her mana?

"Are you feeling better now, Professor?" Colette asked, tilting her head sideways. "Your face looks clearer."

Raine took a deep breath and slowly sat up, looking from her hovering brother to our collection of clustered female faces. "Yes dear, I think so." She rubbed at her head before reaching for her staff, and using it as a lever to help her stand up. Genis was almost immediately attached to her other side, steadying her until she was fully upright. "Thank you, Genis."

"What happened?" I blurted out finally, unable to contain my mouth. Genis glared at me, but Raine didn't seem to mind too terribly much. Or if she did, she was still too out of it at the moment to reprimand me.

"That Orb… I – " Raine paused and looked down into the sewer, where it had rolled out of sight. "It felt like… such a greedy thing. It sucked the energy from whatever held it, and then to expel it…" She shuddered again and tightened her grip on her staff. "Where are Lloyd and Kratos?"

"They went ahead to secure the tunnel," Sheena said, pointing into the darkness. "I'm guessing it's safe, or else we would have heard some sort of struggle by now."

"Or Kratos dismembered them before they could blink," I mumbled. Colette looked at me strangely, but nobody else seemed to pay me any attention. Raine was already making attempts to hobble into the sewer, using her staff and Genis as crutches. Apparently it would take a little longer before the orange gel could restore her strength fully. Colette trotted after them, and left Sheena and me to cover the rear. I didn't like the thought of leaving the broken grate exposed in the open, but nothing weird ever happened in the game (like surprise Desian squads flanking you) so I just had to hope the same thing would happen here.

Also, did I mention that it was dark in the sewer? Mother of frig it was dark in this sewer. And cold. And damp. And there were rats. I couldn't see them, of course, because it was so damn dark; but I could hear their squeaking and splashing through the puddles, and occasionally one of them ran over my foot. Whenever this happened I had the tendency to let out a muffled shriek and jump at the nearest person, Scooby-Doo style. This person was usually, unfortunately for Sheena... Sheena.

But luckily for her and unluckily for me, I was forced to stop when she finally somehow almost shanked me with a guardian card under the excuse of "I thought you were a Desian!" I could have argued back with her about that until the cows came home, but I could feel Kratos' death glare boring into my skull from almost ten feet up ahead and decided that I at least wanted to _try_ and make it to the Tower of Salvation in one piece. This meant I had to suffer the indignity of being run over by rats in silence, but I could tell I probably wasn't the only one suffering. Colette occasionally made weird squeaking noises, and even Genis jumped at his sister once when a particularly big hairy bastard tried to go up his leg.

I wasn't sure how far we walked up that tunnel in the darkness exactly. Each minute felt like an hour crammed full of paranoia, spawned from the worries of either A) Desians were going to jump us from behind, or B) somebody was somehow going to get a rat in their shorts and then the whole expedition would just go to hell. My brain was slipping into autopilot mode a bit when Kratos suddenly and quietly declared "We have reached an exit."

I promptly walked into Colette's back, because I'm just retarded like that and it was dark in here, damn. Luckily the Chosen caught me before I could end up with my butt in sewer water. "I'm so sorry!"

"Geez Colette, nothin' to be sorry for," I mumbled as I brushed myself and her off, since we were supposed to be being quiet here. "I wasn't watching where I was going. It was totally my fault."

"Oh." Colette's face was nothing more than a smudge to my (what I was discovering) apparently abominable night-vision. "I'm sorry."

The sound of Lloyd's facepalming up ahead barely echoed in the tunnel. "You dork, we don't have _time_ for this right now."

"I'm sor - " I promptly clapped my hand over Colette's mouth and hustled her up the tunnel to where Lloyd was standing at the base of iron ladder rungs jutting out from the wall. Kratos was nowhere in sight, which lead me to believe he had already obviously scaled the ladder and was now proceeding to gut who or whatever was up above right now. This lead into the main control room, right? I thought so. As I handed Colette over to Lloyd so he could escort her up the ladder, my brain was rapidly beginning to remember something else I hated about this damn ranch. _We have to split into teams. Oh crap._

Did I want to face Kvar? No. No I did not. That fight _always_ sucked a _huge wang_ and I had been electrocuted enough times in my life already to know that I never wanted it to happen to me again. Trying to take out those little Raybit shitters littering this ranch would probably be bad enough. _So there's seven people, _I thought to myself as I took my turn to carefully scale the slimy ladder into the square of light above. _Assuming I am automatically on the deactivation team, and Lloyd is on the infiltration team, and they're prolly gonna want us to joint-split them, who would I put where...?_

Lucky for my memory, we came out once more into the control room, just like last time. Except this time, I knew we weren't about to have a surprise meeting with either the Renegades or Kvar being a prick behind Door Number Two. Upon my exiting the ladder fully, I headed directly towards the middle of the space and did a quick scan of the whole thing to see if I could see any bloodstains on the floor or remains of bodies being hastily shoved behind some piece of equipment. I wouldn't put it past Kratos, after all. Kratos himself was hovering next to Raine, who was busily hacking into the ranch's main computer for a diagram of how to get the captives out and how best to shove a pointy piece of metal into Kvar. Lloyd was prowling the room like a caged tiger, mostly in the vicinity of Colette and Genis. If I had strolled over there and yelled BOO at him he probably would've stabbed me before he blinked.

Eventually Raine had all the information we needed to successfully own this ranch. "Alright. Everyone gather 'round," she instructed a little wearily. She did sound better than she had after dropping the Desian Orb, but still nowhere near her fiery self. "The captives are located here, in this section." Onscreen, a section of a diagram of the ranch lit up and flashed. "And Kvar is currently located here." Another section on the complete opposite end of the ranch lit up. "But I've determined that we cannot currently get to him because that section is protected by a guard program."

"Can't we just shut that off?" Lloyd asked, peering up at the diagram. Raine nodded a little and pressed another button, and another section of the ranch (on another completely opposite side, mind you) lit up to display a U-shaped section that was familiar to me.

"Yes. That part is located here. But to get from here, to the guard system, and then to rescue the captives, and then go after Kvar without being detected..." Raine looked a little helplessly at Lloyd. "It would normally be impossible."

Lloyd looked at her warily. "'Normally'? What's an, uh... un-normal way?"

"Abnormal," Raine corrected without missing a beat. "And I'm afraid the only way we could successfully pull this off is if we split into teams of two. One to rescue the captives and deactivate the system - "

"And the other to stop Kvar!" Lloyd pounded one fist into another triumphantly. "Okay, I get it now. But who goes where?"

Aaaaaand then everybody looked at me. I should have totally seen this coming.

I pondered opening my mouth to protest this plan of action, but I had the same feeling that it would turn out exactly the same as when I protested the plan of picking how we got into the Desian base. These guys would just make me do it anyway, so I would have to compromise somehow. My brain was already coming up with an idea. "Well... I honestly don't want to face Kvar," I confessed, "So I'd be happy to go with the deactivation group. And Lloyd, we obviously know you're gonna go with the infiltration group."

"You're damn right I am," the brunette grumbled, clenching the fist his exsphere was mounted on. "I need to avenge my mom."

"So I figure I'll take Raine with me, because she's still tired from the crap the Orb put her through," I gestured for the Professor to come to me, and she did with a very small but grateful smile. "Also I'll prolly need her brains to shut down the guard system. So Lloyd, you pick whoever you want to go with you and I'll just take whoever's left along."

"Hm. Alright." Lloyd turned and immediately began to survey the remaining pool of people he had to pick from. I felt a little bad robbing him of the best healer in the group when Kvar was about to turn him into jelly, but I really did need Raine's smarts to figure out this dang system and she really was still tired from the other crap. She probably wouldn't have been of much use in a big, fast-paced battle with lots of electricity flying around in the air. I barely even noticed Raine giving Genis a sisterly _look_ for a moment before he came trotting over to stand next to his sister.

"I have to look after Raine," Genis said simply in response to Lloyd's questioning blink.

"Yeah, I getcha. Then Kratos, would you come with me?" The redhead strolled to Lloyd's side without a second of hesitation. It made sense to me that he would ask the strongest swordsman in the group to join him. And after that, there were just two. _This could be interesting,_ I thought to myself as Lloyd looked between Colette and Sheena for a moment. Colette was trembling a little, like an eager terrier that can't wait for you to throw them a ball or take them on a walk. "And... Sheena, you too?"

Sheena looked somehow surprised and delighted at the same time. "Sure. I'll try not to let you down," she nodded, joining Kratos in what I was beginning to term the Purple Party. Colette looked thoroughly distressed as I collected her into the fold on my side.

"Sorry Colette," Lloyd apologized as he looked over the balance of the two groups. I nodded at him to show that I was satisfied with my lot. "Okay, I think we're all set here."

"Rad. We'll meetcha back in Kvar's room," I waved as Lloyd and his little group of purple people turned and darted a door on the left half of the room to begin their mission of infiltration. "Where are we headed, Professor?"

"Through this door," Raine gestured, beginning to make her way over to it with Genis supporting her. I was tempted to tell him to stuff another orange gel down his sister's throat, but surely Raine knew what she was doing in terms of self-medicating. That just left me and a somewhat-dejected Colette bringing up the rear. My inner fangirl was mentally cheering, even though I could understand Lloyd's decision from the logical standpoint that he (probably) had followed: _We're going on a sneaky mission. Colette trips a lot. Sheena is a ninja. Sheena Colette._

I tried to cheer her up anyway, because sulky Chosens wouldn't make this any more fun than it already was. "Don't be upset, Colette," I soothed, gently patting her on the shoulder. "I'm sure Lloyd wanted you to come with us because once the captives see the face of the Chosen and realize you've come to rescue them, they'll all be so overjoyed."

Colette looked hopefully at me with those big blue eyes of hers. "You really think so?"

"Of _course_, Colette! You're the Chosen; the holy being that will save this land and end the Desians. _Anybody_ would be thrilled to have you come rescue them."

The blonde angel smiled gratefully at me. "Thank you, Emily."

Right, so. Deactivation. I was looking forward to this even _less_ than whenever I played the game, for one very simple reason: how many melee fighters do we have on this team? Me.

Good god I was going to get whipped and stabbed at and shot at by Raybits without mercy or Lloyd backing me up. The thought made me sweat profusely as we walked through the door and into an empty corridor. I recognized this space after a moment of looking around. We just had to pass through the door on the other side of it and we would be in a hallway that lead towards that ridiculous and... fuck, complicated U-shaped structure that housed the guard system. I silently wondered if it would be as simple as stepping on a panel, or if there would be some stupid computer system involved. If there was, hopefully Raine could handle it with her brains. That was what I grabbed her for, after all.

While I was stuck in my thoughts and Raine was checking which door we had to go through again, Genis let out a "Crap!" and Colette gasped. I came back to the present fast enough to realize that a Desian and his Raybit friends had magically appeared in the hallway and were rushing us. Oh damn. My hand flew for my dagger as I ran forward, trying to get inside his range before he could whip at me when a chakram came whistling in from behind me and promptly smashed right into the guy's face. It was in this moment that I realized that Colette was actually really, really good backup.

Needless to say, I wasn't wasting this opportunity. I only paused slightly in my charge to make sure the returning chakram wouldn't hit _me_ before I got right up into the stunned Desian's face and slammed my fist into his (what appeared to be) already-broken nose. The horrible crunching sound that followed told me this guy would probably be drowning in his own blood for a while. With no time to properly ponder that, I yanked my hand back and tried to shake blood and bone fragments off while turning to face the Raybits. The two of them had backed Genis and Raine up against the wall; and though Colette was trying to stop them, the edges of her chakrams only dented the hard metal of their outsides. Genis was too busy trying to not be shot by lightning to cast anything at the moment, as well as shielding his sister.

I looked from my bloody hand to the one that clutched my hydra dagger, and wondered for the first time if it was possible for someone to sonic thrust _down_. A sickening 'thump' from the Heart on my chest told me there was nothing I could do but try. Colette certainly wasn't getting anywhere at this rate.

So I ran forwards towards the Raybits a few steps, crouched and leaped into the air. In a stunning display of athleticism I didn't even know I could possess, my body arched like a leaping cat before I came slamming down blade-first into the top of the first Raybit. The hydra dagger punched right through the outside metal shell like a knife into corkboard, and my weight brought the Raybit crashing into the ground along with me. As I struggled to wrench the blade out of the metal shell, the second Raybit shot me right in the chest.

And mother of all fuck, that was the _worst_ pain I had _ever_ felt. It didn't help that the damn thing had actually nailed me square in the Demon's Heart... which now felt like it was on fire. Everything else went out the window at this point for me because I was too busy writhing around on the floor yelping and trying to smother invisible flames.

Eventually someone grabbed my shoulders and pinned me down flat on the floor long enough for a soothing, healing light to spread across my chest. The pain died marginally, and I cracked my bleary eyes open to see Colette staring down at me with such a concentrated expression of concern I thought that maybe I had died. "What just happened?" I squeaked at her. For some reason, it was a bit hard to breathe.

"One of those machines shot you," the angel said, her eyes lingering on my chest for a moment. Craning my sore neck to follow her gaze, I was somehow not all that surprised when I saw that a large charred hole now adorned the front of my shirt in front of the Demon's Heart. Luckily, my skin did not look like my shirt; doubtless thanks to Raine's healing skills. "It was so awful. We thought you'd had a heart attack."

"Sure felt like I had one," I grumbled, gently pushing at Colette's hands to make her let go of my shoulders. The angel helped me sit up and I looked around, immediately spotting what remained of the last Raybit: speared on several points of earth. I don't know how the lad did it, but apparently Genis had just discovered the wonders of Stalagmite. Speaking of Genis, he was only a few feet away with Raine tending to some of the electrical burns he had accrued while defending from the Raybits. I caught a glimpse of one on his leg before Raine healed it up - a softball-sized circle of bright red, blistering flesh. Taking that visual into account, I stupidly looked down at my chest again, imagined it covered in burning blisters; _finally_ realized the funny smell in the air around here was actually burnt flesh, and then I almost threw up.

But not quite. Even though I had my hands over my mouth and nose and my brain was screaming to upheave my stomach contents, I managed to hold it down for now. This was seriously not the time to start losing my cool when we needed to get out of here, fast, and shut down the guard system before the Desians realized that Lloyd, Kratos, and Sheena were all attempting to break into the main part of their stronghold. Colette was still giving me her concerned look when I finally took my hands away from my mouth and realized blue eyes were still boring into my chest. Rather selfconsciously, I raised a hand to shield what tiny bit of exposed cleavage I had (which wasn't much to begin with, but hey. I'm modest). "Colette, what's wrong? I'm fine now."

Colette frowned. "The stone on your chest is purple."

...well hello sunshine. The Demon's Heart was _supposed_ to be black. It always was anytime I looked at it, anyway. I prodded curiously at the stone a few times, but aside from the usual throbbing it always did in my chest, I couldn't find or feel anything else wrong with it. "I'm sure it's fine, Colette. Anyway, we have to get out of here and shut down that freakin' system fast, before they realize there's a pile of scrap and a guy with a broken face out here." I managed to get up on my first try with Colette only giving me a minimum of help, and promptly headed over to the Raybit to retrieve my stuck dagger. Two good yanks got it free, and by then I was realizing those white things stuck in my hand were not scar tissue. Though it pained me to do it, I very carefully used the point of the hydra dagger to work out the remaining bone fragments that were stuck in my skin. Right before my eyes, the tiny cuts stopped bleeding and appeared to scab right over by themselves. I wasn't quite sure what to think of that.

"Are we all ready to go?" Raine asked quietly as she began to head down the hall towards another door at the far end. I wondered why the heck we weren't going through the one _right in front of us_, when I suddenly remembered. Oh right. We have to go outside for a while in this ranch. Flipping balls of joy. Colette and Genis were already hustling after Raine to our destination, so I definitely didn't want to be left behind. I sheathed my dagger onto my belt and, with some reluctance, drew an apple gel from my hip pouch. I didn't completely know what kind of properties these things had, aside from tasting like complete shit, but hopefully one of them was antibacterial. No way did I want to get some sort of weird blood infection because bits of half-elf bone were somehow still lodged inside my hand.

Swallowing it was just as horrible as all the other times I'd ever had to choke down a gel. Uuuugh.

So we ended up in what was effectively Kvar's backyard. Or maybe it was his front yard? I had no idea at this point, just supplying witty mental commentary as the plot demands. We crouched behind a stack of what looked like strange cement crates close nearby the door we had come out of as Raine consulted her trusty map, trying to figure out where we had to go in this yard of hell. Colette was looking particularly nervous, and I couldn't blame her. Waaaay over on the other side of the grass, there were some prisoners toiling away at useless work and a lot of angry Desian yelling. Her sensitive ears were probably bursting internally with angst.

Eventually Raine figured out that hey, we go this way; and so we slunk off through the maze of cement crates in the direction of this strange little door she had found. Maybe it went to the basement, I didn't really remember by that point. I was more concerned with getting a surprise whip to the back and maybe ending up _inside_ one of the freaky cement crates. I'm sure we all did Sheena proud out there, creeping around like pretend ninjas and blending in reasonably well to the grey stone despite most of us wearing bright colors. I mean, c'mon. Everybody's wearing some form of white, Raine was predominantly _orange_, and Genis... yeah, you see where this is going. At least I was wearing a brown vest and dark pants. That had to count for something.

Still, I was never as happy as when we finally reached that little door hidden behind a bunch of boxes, Raine picked the lock, and we all scooted inside. Were we safer? Hell no. But there's just something more comforting about sneaking around when you know that there's four walls you can press your back against and a roof over your head.

After that, Colette and I took point and Genis brought up the rear, the three of us keeping Raine surrounded in a sort of protective mob. We passed through the door she had deemed safe and found ourselves in an empty hallway that lead straight down. There weren't any additional doors in the walls, which meant we only had to watch our front and our back.

And quite possibly the ceiling, but since when had anything ever jumped us from the ceiling? I didn't even see any grates up there.

"We're almost to the split," Raine noted, checking the little map she'd obtained of the ranch from the main room. I immediately set to thinking about what obstacles we would encounter once we reached the U-split. It didn't matter whether we went left or right, but immediately before that we would probably encounter a Desian patrol in the giant empty room located up ahead. Strategy would have to come into play here.

"Wait, you guys." I stopped, bringing our little caravan to a halt. The others gazed at me curiously, possibly thinking I was insane. I wouldn't blame them. "We shouldn't all go charging ahead into that room in front of us. It's big and there's no place for good cover, right Raine?" I asked, looking over at the Professor. She glanced down at her map and nodded.

"What are you suggesting? That we send someone to scout ahead?" Raine asked, giving me a strange look.

"Yeah. If there's something up there we have to fight, I'd rather lure them into this hallway first." I gestured to either side of the narrow space, which was about seven feet wide. "If Genis boxes them in, they'll have no place to go; and Raybits hopefully won't make a target out of you guys again."

Genis winced at the mention of it. I had a feeling he was down for my plan. Raine also nodded thoughtfully after a moment. "It is a good plan. I don't mind going through with it."

"You shouldn't go alone!" Colette protested, clinging to my arm for a moment. "What if something goes wrong?"

"Howabout you cover me from the hallway?" I suggested, gently extricating myself from the angel. "I'll be heading back this way anyway. If it looks like they're getting too close, spray some angel feathers at them or something."

Colette blinked, frowning for a moment before her pink wings materialized and fluttered into view. "Sorry, I forgot about these. I can do that."

"No apologizing," I told her, and immediately darted down the hallway towards the opening before she could spew more of them at me. At the end I slowed to a stop and crouched down next to the wall, drawing my dagger just in case. I could hear footsteps and something electrical humming, which meant there was probably at least one Raybit in this group. Just fucking brilliant. To confirm my hunch, I peered carefully around the corner and spotted two Desians chatting with each other while they strolled on either side of a Raybit.

_Ah fuck. How do I do this without one guy running off and getting reinforcements?_ Well, I could always pray to the game mechanics and... hope the Desians were as dumb as they looked. With that said, these guys were wielding swords this time, so I would have to be careful if I got in close with them. It was times like these that made me wish _I_ had a sword. Oh well.

"Hey losers!" I yelled lightly as I jumped out into the opening of the hallway and waved my hands in the air. Needed to give Colette and Genis some cues to get ready for a fight, after all. "Bet you can't get me!"

"Hey! Inferior being!" One Desian snapped. The Raybit promptly starting floating over and shot a ball of electricity at me. I slid to the side to avoid getting another part of my shirt burned to bits. Undaunted, the Raybit kept firing; so I kept dodging around in the entrance of the hallway. Sometimes it got a little awkward, but then again, I had always been really good at dodgeball when it came to the dodging department. _Ha. Just like dancing._

"C'mon guys, where's your manly pride?" I called over to the Desians again. "This dinky little machine of yours is never gonna take me out!"

"Dammit!" And then they charged at me with their weapons drawn. That was my cue to skedaddle back into the hallway, where Colette was already deep in prayer and Genis had runes swirling about his feet. I skittered to a stop in front of them and took up a protective position, ready to cast Guardian so flying electric spheres wouldn't interrupt their casting.

A bit too late, Desian mooks 1 and 2 realized that hey, _this was a trap_. They realized this even further when giant rocks suddenly shot up from the floor and squished mook 2 right into the ceiling. I had a feeling he wasn't going to be making any babies anytime soon.

Mook 1 turned to run, but then Colette's angel feathers rushed down the hallway and caught him in his tracks; the feathery halos liberally slicing through his skin. I ran after them, skirting the Raybit to finish off mook 1 with a sonic thrust somewhere in the direction of where I thought his kidney would be. Hey, you can live with only one kidney.

And then I had to duck immediately afterwards because I'd learned my lesson the first time and _goddess-damn fucking Raybits_.

Colette's chakrams dinged off the top of the thing, distracting it for a moment. In that moment I did a sort of jump across the floor, lunged upwards and stabbed my dagger up into the thankfully less armored and more-vulnerable underside of the Raybit. It fizzled and spat until I proceeded to drag it down to the floor and stab it multiple times in a fit of red-haze-induced rage.

Then I kicked it for good measure. "I fucking _hate_ you things!"

The Raybit corpse fizzled and I kicked it again. "If you're quite done," Raine said dryly from the next room, leaving me to realize that they had temporarily left me alone and I didn't want to be shanked by surprise Desians! so I hotfooted it after them to retake my place near the head of the group with Colette. It was in that moment that I taught her something new when I held my fist out to her and the angel stared at it.

"What are you doing?"

"Fistbump!" I told her cheerfully. "Make a fist and tap mine. It's a celebratory sort of thing."

"Oh. Okay!" Colette followed suit and gently tapped her knuckles to mine. "What are we celebrating?"

"Good teamwork!"

"Hey, I want in on the celebrating!" Genis complained from the back of the group.

Raine silently scowled at us all. "It's too early to be celebrating anything until we free the prisoners and defeat Kvar."

I pouted at her. "Don't be a downer, Raine. Positive spirits make things flow better." Turning back to look over her shoulder, I waved to Genis. "Pop up here real fast so we can brofist, man."

The mage came scooting up after glancing once over his shoulder to make sure nothing was sneaking up on us. "What's a brofist?" He asked. I held up my fist, and after a moment Genis bumped it with his own.

"Tada. That's a brofist," I told him. "It's technically only something two guys can do, so make sure you show Lloyd when we get back to him."

A big grin began to spread over Genis' face. "Yeah, definitely!" In the background, his sister groaned and shook her head a little. Doubtless the Professor thought the current situation was too serious to be chatting about the art of the brofist, but I thought it was a good time for this sort of thing. We were almost to the prisoners, and which would you prefer to be saved by? Rescuers who look tired, worried, and unsure of what they're doing; or rescuers who look confident and in control?

Yeah, I'd go with the latter option too.

With our spirits boosted, we slipped right into the first open door to begin the guard system shutdown process. It began in a tiny little room that had one of those darn panels on the floor, and a computer console on the wall nearby. The minute I saw that I mentally groaned and left it for Raine to hack mercilessly at. Clearly it would be needed to do something, because Genis was poking at the panel on the floor with his foot and it wasn't responding. Raine seemed to notice the same thing I did, because she immediately swept over to the computer.

This left Colette and I hanging by our lonesome. I gestured towards the open door and she nodded, getting the message. It was time to cover the Sage siblings until they solved this puzzle for us.

The air was quiet for a few minutes, except for the sound of Raine humming thoughtfully to herself and various clicks and beeps from the computer. After what seemed like an eternity, she turned around and gestured to Genis. "It's okay to step on the panel now. From what I can tell, doing so shouldn't result in any harm to us."

Genis gulped anyway. "If you say so, sis," he mumbled, taking a cautious step onto the panel. It flashed blue under his weight and Colette and I both jumped backwards with a 'meep!' as the door began to close right in front of us. Even though I knew this was supposed to happen, it still scared the crap out of me.

After a moment, I reached out and prodded at it to try and find an opening switch, even though I knew there wasn't one. "Clearly, this is a one-way road."

"We need to go this way," Raine said, already standing next to another door and poking at it. "The prisoner complex is right next to here."

"Really? That's great!" Colette stepped right up to Raine as the professor opened the door, and the angel gave off her most winning smile. "Can I go first? It'll give us better cover against guards."

Raine appeared to give this some thought as I stepped up next to Colette and took out my dagger. There would obviously be some guards around the complex that would require shanking, and I was silently hoping that there would be _no Raybits_. Just doing this ranch was already giving me uncomfortable flashbacks to what Welgaia would probably be like, with those... oh god, those Murder things. hnnnnngh did not want and whoops, Colette was going through the door. I had apparently missed the end of her conversation with Raine, being too preoccupied with waythefuckinthefuture impending doom. Since I was supposed to be Colette's point guard, I squeezed into the short tunnel before Raine and scrambled after the angel.

Naturally, we ended up the prison complex; and naturally, there were Desians in there. Two on the lower floor were taking a break from patrolling to harass the prisoners when Colette and I burst into the room. I heard a few "We're saved!" and "What's going on?" from the cells while I made myself into an immediate distraction and rushed the Desians. One had a whip and the other had a sword, and I had the feeling I would be in for some pain. _This is what you get for sending ALL YOUR MELEE FIGHTERS AGAINST KVAR._

Made even more obvious and painful when the whip smacked into my arm as I tried to guard. I dunno what the hell was in the tip of it exactly, but it was hard and heavy as hell and I was willing to swear it'd just cracked my bone because the pain was _ridiculous_. Thankfully, that was not my dagger arm. That one was busy fencing with the sword-wielding Desian. Things were rapidly reaching the point that I was wondering _where the hell is my backup?_ as the whip smacked me again, this time tagging my collarbone and clipping my jaw on the return trip. Something cracked: I didn't know whether it was my collarbone or my teeth.

Then came three of the best screams I had ever heard in my life.

"Angel Feathers!" On came the fluffy holy halos, and my Desian buddies backed the hell off as I began to scramble backwards while cradling my disabled arm.

"Spread!" Then they took a trip into the ceiling. Man, Genis really liked doing that. I watched impassively as my previous foes shot up on a geyser of water, slammed into the concrete ceiling, and then slammed back down into the concrete floor as the water made a return trip via gravity. Pity felt? Absolutely none. Those bastards had broken _something_ of mine, damn it all.

"Nurse!" Best. Scream. Ever. Bless Raine's awesome half-elf heart; she learned how to do a stronger healing spell. A swirl of blue light that looked disturbingly human came skipping up to me and hugged me, which was weird in and of itself. Then it _dissolved_ into me, and I became extremely freaked out for thirty seconds until I realized that anything that had been hurting previously had... stopped hurting. _Okay. The healyblob basically raped me to make me better... But it's still cool!_

I came back to the present when a giant pile of rocks shot up from the top of the nearby stairwell into the lower level, effectively blocking off the pair of Desians that had been trying to climb down it. That left the other stair on the other side of the room open, and I scrambled towards it with Colette flying behind me. As we ran, cheers of "It's the Chosen! The Chosen has come to save us!" and "An angel! An angel has descended from heaven!" began to erupt from the cells lining the walls as prisoners crowded forwards into the bars, stretching out their hands to try and catch the ethereal feathers shedding off Colette's wings.

"Get 'em from above!" I called to her as I charged up the steps. My thought process beyond this point was nothing more than _OH GOD DON'T FALL UP THE STAIRS_ as I clenched my dagger tighter in my fist and somehow, felt strangely empowered. _Is this what Lloyd feels before he pulls off one of those rippin' combos? Hunh, I wonder,_ and then I didn't have time to wonder anymore when there was a Desian trying to stab me in the face. I ducked to one side, letting his sword slip past me and fighting back a wince when I heard fabric rip and felt something hot trickle down my shoulder. Well, there went the rest of my shirt.

"Asshole! I liked this shirt!" Mad did not adequately describe my mental state. I was being fueled by adrenaline and a power rush and _hey you just tried to KILL ME!_ so I hauled back and slammed the hilt of my hydra dagger up into the underside of his jaw. I must've hit harder than I thought, because I _definitely_ felt some teeth breakage there before the Desian went staggering back into his compatriot as he tried to climb down the stairs too. Oh, I thank the gaming gods so hard that these guys are stupid.

Seconds later, more of Colette's angel feathers rained down from above; and shortly after that, rocks from Genis. I had to turn away at that point and trudge wearily down the stairs. Just hearing the sickening 'squish-crack-crunch' of stalagmites doing horrible things to flesh was bad enough without me seeing it, too. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, I slumped down against the retaining wall lining the inside rim of the room and inspected the damage to my shoulder. It was a thin slice, about five inches long and almost an inch deep. In real life, it would have required stitches. Here with Raine setting about undoing all the locks and freeing the prisoners... it required an apple gel. Uuuugh.

I pulled another one out of my pack and glanced over my supplies. Three of the slimy little bastards left to use. _Welp, bottoms up,_ I mentally sighed and tossed down the gel. It made me cringe and flail until my wound knitted together with a thin scab line and some dried blood left to show for it. I poked at it, satisfied it would hold until we got out of here and Raine could finish healing it later.

As I was getting back up to rejoin the rest of the group and resume shutting down the guard system, I had a sudden realization. _I think I just used Beast holy flipping crap what._ I looked from my dagger, to my hand, to the stairs (and turned back away real fast, OH GOD THE CARNAGE), and finally down to my chest. The Demon's Heart was doing its usual little thumpy thing that made me feel vaguely queasy to think about, and it was considerably less purple than before. _So... how did I do that exactly. I feel like getting mad has something to do with it._

Aaaaand Raine was escorting the prisoners through a door in the front of the complex whoops. I shook myself out of my reverie and scrambled back over to join Colette and Genis in assisting with this process. Once Raine had pointed them where to go, we'd be able to go back to doin' our own thing. Lucky for us, the hallway in that direction should be clear this time. Unless... some magical respawn stuff had taken place. Then I would run in the other direction with the prisoners screaming about zombies.

"What happened to your shoulder?" Colette asked as we exited into the hallway and promptly headed back in the direction we'd just came from. I shrugged a little and instantly regretted it when _THE PAIN_ hit.

"Desian, stairs, didn't duck fast enough, I'll be fine," I mumbled on the end because I technically would be and Raine was busy enough already with the whole guard system thing. "C'mon, let's just get this crap over with so we can meet up with Lloyd again."

The angel nodded in agreement. Thankfully, the hallway was still mostly empty. I mean, there was a giant pile of rocks with (URK) Desian-bits squished into the ceiling, another one on the floor and a dead Raybit; but other than that it was empty. We breezed past the corpses while trying not to think about them and headed for the other door on the other side of the big room.

Almost too late, I remembered. "Raybit!"

The whole party screeched to a halt, weapons flying into a ready position. "Where?" Raine asked. I pointed towards the room we were about to go into, and got a Look in return.

Right, we obviously couldn't fight in the room with important equipment. Who to send as bait...? The fast tiny one who hates Raybits. hnnnnngh Raine wrrrrrry. Mentally crying my emo tears, I pulled out my dagger and headed for the room.

Stuck my head in the door.

Hit the floor when an electric ball almost blasted my face off. "ARRRRGH I _FUCKING HATE YOU THINGS_."

The Raybit readjusted to account for a lower angle. I promptly rolled backwards and around the edge of the door as the electric burst splatted into the floor, leaving static to tingle and crawl around my skin. _Adfsghsdf._ It was painful waiting for the damn thing to come floating up and finally out of the doorway, looking around for targets. Thankfully Colette was a good shot and a dozen angel feathers slammed into the Raybit as soon as it cleared our 'target zone'. Knocked back from the impact, the robot tilted and revealed its vulnerable underside to me for just a moment. I lunged across the floor and slammed the hydra dagger up into its innards to forcibly rip out a chunk of the vital machinery.

The Raybit promptly exploded in my face afterwards. That was real nice.

I was cursing with my arms over my face when I felt the soothing touch of mana that signaled Raine was healing whatever burns I had sustained from being right next to the explosion. "Thanks Raine," I mumbled, sitting up after a moment and looking over my clothes to see if further damages had been acquired. Wouldn't you know, the backs of both my sleeves were a nice crispy brown color. At this rate I was going to walk out of the ranch without a shirt on. _Why is this happening to meeee,_ I whined silently as we tromped into the room and let Raine hack away at the guard system while the rest of us waited. _I'm one of the flattest members of this group. I can NOT be falling prey to the Clothing Damage/Fanservice trope!_

Genis hopped onto the glowing panel when his sister gave him the signal. The whole thing beeped and the room flashed red for a moment, indicating a successful shutdown. I was still too busy fretting over my shirt. _I'm going to have to patch this damn thing up and oh god I am so not good at sewing_.

"The rest of the system is located on the other side of this complex," Raine indicated in the background as she gathered up her pack and her staff and began to head out the door. "Let's move quickly, before another patrol comes along to discover why part of the guard system isn't working." That declaration stuck in my brain, and I scrambled out the door with the others as we began our hustle down the long hallway and into the other half of the U-complex. I was nervous we would run into more guards, or hell, more Raybits; but nothing in particular jumped out at us during our run from one end to the other. I guessed we had already taken out the main guards in this section of the ranch, and as long as we worked quickly we wouldn't run into more of them.

As we ran, I mused on how we would get to the warp to join Lloyd and company in time for the Kvar fight. This was taking an awful lot of running. Not to mention we would have to retrace our steps back to the control room (a very risky prospect in itself, we'd have to cross the yard again) and follow the route Lloyd had taken from there to get up to the warp. Though I was pretty bad at calculating time, I gave it my best estimate anyway and concluded - the game bullshits you. There was no _way_ we'd be able to get up there for the fight, especially considering how out-for-blood Lloyd and Kratos were. We'd be lucky if we got there in time to hear Kratos deliver his infamous line.

_But hey wait. Ain't Colette supposed to get smacked in the back and Lloyd lets the cat outta the bag? ...aw horsefeathers_. Maybe the universe was cheating me.

To my great relief, the rest of the deactivation went off almost without a hitch. We went in the first little room, hitch the switch, triggered the door, escaped through the prison complex; wound back around, hit the other door, and then there was the Raybit. I had had enough of this fucking Raybit shit.

The minute the door slid open, I charged in with a screech of _"DIE!"_ and smashed the hydra dagger right into the barrel of the Raybit's electrical cannon. The whole thing exploded spectacularly again, but luckily not in my face this time. I had learned my lesson, left the dagger stuck in there, and run the hell away after stabbing it. The Raybit tried to shoot me and exploded. HOORAY FOR MECHANICAL STUPIDITY. As Raine went to go beat up the computer, I dragged my dagger out of the scrap and tried to clean some of the soot off of it on my burnt sleeve. It took me a moment to realize Colette and Genis were staring at me. "What?"

Genis soundlessly pointed at the Raybit and made some sort of weird flappy gesture with his hand. Colette was a tiny bit more vocal. "Are you... feeling okay?" She asked cautiously, as if I was a bomb that would go off at the slightest provocation.

I sheathed my dagger and glanced over at Raine, who was giving Genis her 'come hither and step on this thing' look. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just really, really don't like Raybits." _And I think my adrenaline levels may be just the TINIEST bit off the charts right now. I really need to get out of this place before I crash back down to earth. _Colette was still giving me a wary look, but we both put that aside to watch Genis stomp on the final switch. The room flashed red and BOOP'd, and then it was done. Guard system, your ass has officially been kicked.

"Now we need to hurry and meet up with the others," Raine said, brushing past us and back out into the hallway. She left the 'before the guards come' part unspoken this time, but that was pretty much a given. I did not want to have to fight my way all the way up to Kvar's room. If that was going to be our plan, I would probably be better off climbing over the front gates out in the yard and running with all the prisoners to wherever they were going to end up again. Asgard? Luin? _You know, that always bothered me. How the fuck do they go from here to Asgard so damn fast with Colette half-dying or whatever? Damn you, plot devices! _I could worry about that later, though. If I didn't keep my head in the present, it would probably end up skewered on some Desian's spear.

Falling into formation, the four of us left the room and swept through the hallways in our quest to meet up with Lloyd.

I was tired by the time we got to the warp room. Very, very tired, and honestly a little bit (okay a lot bit) grossed out at the same time. Have _you_ ever had to run through a hallway that was covered in blood before? Go thank your lucky stars, because I sure did. Everything had smelled like copper to me since then and my boots made very disgusting, sticky squish noises against the floor as we ran. That coupled with the bodies of Desians and Raybits we were finding everywhere made me wonder just how much fun Lloyd and Kratos had had on the way up to see Kvar.

At least I wasn't the only one disgusted by the whole thing. Colette had both her hands over her nose in a futile effort to not smell anything, and Genis was occasionally casting small water spells in front of us to wash pools of blood out of our way.

So the warp came sort of like a huge blessing. We could leave these disgusting floors and head up onto another one that would... still smell like blood. "Please don't let this suck as much as I think it's going to suck," I mumbled under my breath before I stepped on the warp and had the most positively-hurl-inducing experience of my life. It was like being streeeeeched out to the point where all my atoms were in a line, then sucked through a tube and snapped back upon landing.

I stumbled out of the warp, dizzy and nauseated; smelled blood and burnt flesh, and promptly staggered over to go vomit behind a chair. The others didn't give too much of a damn about me at the moment because Raine was too busy flying over there to slap healing spells on Lloyd and Sheena; and the other two followed because OMG OUR FRIIIIIENDS ARE HURT! I don't mind the fact that they're very close and team-oriented and everything, but if there is _one thing_ in this world that can reduce my mentality to that of a retarded crying three-year-old in a second, it's vomit. Crouched behind that chair shaking like a leaf with my eyes closed and a variety of positively _horrendous_ smells assaulting me all at once, I just wanted someone to come and wipe my face and lead me away from all this into some fresh air.

'course, that didn't happen right away because there were important Plot Things going on over there. I know because I heard them.

Colette's yelp of "_Lloyd, look out!"_ The sound of rendered flesh. Lloyd's successive yelp of outrage and "_YOU BASTARD!"_ as he presumably grabbed Colette, since I didn't hear her hit the floor. There was another slicing sound. Musta been Lloyd, Kratos wasn't saying his line yet.

The minute I heard the next sword strike, I knew it was Kratos because the blow was so hard I could hear bones crunching all the way over here. "_Feel the pain!"_ More crunching, oh god. _"Of those inferior beings!" _Now there was the sound of a body hitting the floor, presumably Kvar because there was some desperate male-sounding groaning going on over there. Kratos' sword clicked back home into its sheath. "_As you burn in hell."_

_Welp, I have officially heard Kratos' famous line. HIDING BEHIND A CHAIR WITH MY OWN VOMIT, BUT I HEARD IT. ...why does this not make me feel better._

At this point I sort of made a desperate attempt to scoot backwards away from my stomach contents, still with my eyes closed because yeah. I didn't even hear the footsteps come up to me until I bumped into somebody's leg and froze, unsure of who it was. If it was Kratos, I was just going to die right there on the floor.

"Wow, you're kind of a mess hunh?" It was Sheena. Ohthankgod it was Sheena. She knelt down and wiped my face with what felt like a handkerchief while I whimpered miserably and cast aside all illusions of bravado at this point. After being shot and stabbed and exploded on, I really just wanted to get out of here. Eventually I rolled over onto my side so I didn't have to face that damn chair anymore, and wearily opened my eyes and attempted to smile up at Sheena. It turned out sort of forced after I saw that she was singed in several places and still had tiny electrical burns arching over her face.

"...thanks Sheena," I squeaked out, more glad than ever before I had not been present for this fight. If Sheena came out of it looking that bad, I probably would have died.

"No problem. I'm not a fan of that either," she wrinkled her nose in the direction behind me, and I knew what she was talking about. With the ninja's help, I levered myself up off the floor and the two of us staggered over in time to witness Raine applying serious healing magics onto Colette's wound as the angel protested that she was fine and Lloyd lost what was left of his shit. Sometime during this display, Genis came inching up to us and took shelter behind Sheena.

"Why is this happening?" He whined, looking to Colette. It took me a moment to see what he was talking about, but after staring at Colette for a second I saw what was wrong. Raine's magic was just flowing over the wound without closing it - it wasn't doing a damn thing. Blood continued to sluggishly leak out into the angel's white clothes and onto the floor. I very briefly thought about paying a second trip to my chair, but decided I'd done enough of that for one day.

"Professor, really - I'm fine, I swear! It... it doesn't hurt," Colette protested ineffectually as Raine poured more effort into her healing. At this rate, the Professor was going to drain her mana dry for nothing. "Please, stop - "

"Colette, I..." Lloyd was practically turning white at this point as he supported his injured friend. "I don't think I can hide it anymore - !"

"I don't know why you bothered in the first place," I grumbled as I left Sheena and Genis and slouched over to stand next to Raine. "Professor, just stop. I don't... don't think Colette has the ability to absorb magic anymore."

Raine almost dropped her staff as the healing light died and she stared up at me with wide eyes. "What?"

"Just like she can't eat, or sleep," I stared over at Lloyd, who was doing a very good goldfish impression as his mouth soundlessly opened and shut. "Or feel pain." Colette quietly buried her face further into Lloyd's jacket, one hand gripping at his arm. "Colette's losing her humanity."

Cue the shocked gasp from pretty much everyone except Raine and Kratos. Raine, I had always suspected, knew something about this from the start. As for Kratos... oh, we all know about Kratos and his opinions on this. Or we can speculate on his opinions about this. I rather imagine they amounted to 'let's blow this shit up and get out of here' at this point. But bugger Kratos, Lloyd looked like he wanted to punch me through a wall. "You _knew_ about this?" He yelped, clutching Colette tighter.

I gave him a very thin, tight smile. "I unfortunately know everything, remember?"

"And you - you could have told us about this! We could have done something about it!" Over Lloyd's shouting and out of the corner of my eye, I was painfully aware of Kratos' hand drifting sideways towards the hilt of his sword. _Oh shit oh shit oh shit, if I don't play this right he is gonna cut me down and call me a Desian spy shiiiiiiit_,

I loved Lloyd, but I really just wanted to kick him in the teeth right now for this. "What should I have done, Lloyd? Stopped the regeneration journey? Doomed the world because Colette is willingly undertaking the trials she was born to do?" I glared hard at him, feeling like shit inside for talking about Colette like that but at the same time I really needed him to just _shut up_ before Kratos decided to Kvar me. It seemed to work a bit, because Lloyd flinched back and gritted his teeth. "Besides, it wasn't my secret to tell people. It was Colette's." Kneeling down beside the angel, I took her hand and gave it a soft squeeze. "I'm sorry for giving it away now, Colette."

"It's... okay," the angel whispered, turning her face away from Lloyd's jacket so that I could see her saddened eyes. "Somehow... I always thought you knew. And I was glad, because I knew... you would understand."

"It's not something I like understanding," I admitted grimly. "You're too kind a person for this, Colette."

The angel smiled at me, chuckling a little before the sound died. Detecting something unnatural in that, both Lloyd and I peered more closely at her face in time to witness what was probably the most creepy thing ever. Most human eyes have a sort of light to them that lets you know they're alive. Colette's eyes... they were losing that. It didn't go away completely, but just enough to give you an impression that nobody was home in the building anymore. Lloyd promptly freaked out. "Colette!"

"I think she's losing too much blood." Raine took over at this point, pulling an apple gel and several rolls of bandages out of her bag. I stepped aside and dragged Lloyd with me by the arm so that he wouldn't get in the way by possibly attempting to shake Colette back to reality. He fought me, of course; but I was tired of this and I just wanted to get out of here before Kratos decided this was all taking too long and I was becoming more hindrance than help.

"Lloyd, calm down. Since she can't sleep anymore, she probably goes unconscious differently now," I tried to pacify the swordsman, who was still rightfully pissed at me. I eventually gave up and scuttled back over to the relative safety of Sheena in hopes that she could shield me from any assassination attempts. Lloyd continued to fume just out of the way of the Professor, who had her staff handy in case she had to give him a whack for some space. Luckily, Kratos came along and took care of all that.

"Lloyd." Plop, there went his hand down onto the brunette's shoulder. Lloyd flinched and whipped his head up to stare at Kratos, who had an expression similar to granite as he stared down at the younger man. "We must remove the Chosen from this place at once so that she may rest and recover."

"Er, yeah, I... Yeah, we should... yeah," and there went Lloyd attempting to regain some of his shit. "Where should we take her?"

"Asgard is closest, I believe," Raine mused from where she was tying off a bandage around Colette's midsection. "But I want to do something about this ranch before we go."

"Blow this sucker up," I piped up from around Sheena's shoulder as the ninja gave me a sideways look for invading her space.

"Isn't that a little... harsh?"

"C'mon Sheena, it's the _Desians_. Their middle name is practically 'harsh'."

The Professor gave us both a thoughtful look before she handed Colette off to Kratos. The mercenary held her in his arms with Lloyd hovering like a worried hen as Raine gathered her supplies and got up to begin hacking the nearby computer terminal. I took this opportunity to inch backwards several steps towards the warp, all the while making it a point to studiously avoid the vomit chair. If anything here deserved to go up in lots of flames, it was that thing. Yes. Besides, I wanted as much time as possible to run the hell out of here once Raine set the timer because I was sure I would have to run back through the bloody halls and that alone would make me gag plenty of times along the way. If only Sheena could just warp us out of here again or something, but I was pretty sure she was out of guardians.

While I fretted, the others watched the Professor at her work. Eventually she picked up her staff and rejoined the group. "I've managed to activate the self-destruct mechanism. We have ten minutes to leave before it goes off."

"Ten _minutes_? That's _all_?" Genis squeaked before he turned and scrambled towards the warp. I wasn't too far behind him, piling onto the glowing device just as soon as he was out of sight. The others would follow with all haste, I knew. Now we just had to haul our butts out of here and get a safe distance away before the place exploded. I foresaw a very long trip back to Asgard after this, but that didn't matter to me too much anymore.

_We finally did it. We've beaten the Asgard ranch_.


	12. Recouping in Asgard

__A/N: Oh my crap I think this is the fastest update yet. It helps that it's only half the length of the last chapter. Also, my corners are officially cut.

My excuse for this year is that when this semester is over, I will hopefully be graduating with a degree in Communication Design! However, I am optimistic that I should be able to update again within the year. (That actually sounds pretty sad. Oh well.) This depends on how much of a pain Palmacosta wants to be. Urgh.

* * *

_So after that, we ended up traveling all through the night with all the prisoners from the ranch. A lot of them were sick or injured and couldn't go as fast as we were (since there was MUCH HASTE to move Colette's unconscious self to Asgard) so we had the stronger people help the weaker ones along until we hit a House of Salvation. I don't know why the heck we didn't just rest there for the night, but I guess it suddenly became crowded there with forty-something people and everyone from our group is far too noble to take up the beds from them, so we left them there with the priest (who promised to send a letter to Dirk about keycrests) and continued our tromping along to Asgard._

_We did encounter bandits at one point (musta thought they were being smart) and uh... I think it's better if you don't know what happened to those poor bastards. Let's just say everyone's blood pressure was running a little high by that point. Did you know Kratos could kill people with his arms full of unconscious Chosen? __**I**__ sure didn't know that._

_Eventually we arrived back here in Asgard. Raine and Kratos bullied us into the best room in the second-best inn, and that's where we've been holed up since. It's been a day now and Colette is still unconscious, so Raine went out to find a proper doctor to look at her. In the meantime, Kratos all but threw Lloyd out the door because his teenage angst was beginning to get on his nerves. I have no idea where the hell he is now, which is a little worrying but Kratos doesn't seem to give a damn so I'm sure he's just blowing off steam somewhere. Sheena and Genis left to tour the 'fascinating' cave ruins, and I left to go shopping because I promised I'd get myself a notebook way back in freaking HIMA and then I forgot about it. That situation has now been rectified and yaaaaay I has a journal to chronicle all this crap in. I better hope Kratos doesn't read it though, or else I'm gonna have to burn every page after I write it. Maybe I can write all my notes in Spanish... But that would seem suspicious, wouldn't it? Also Raine might want to dissect my brain for a translation of the pages._

_Meh. I'm starting to think I'm screwed either way 'round here. Can't even wait until the shit hits the fan at the Tower. If they don't kill me then, they'll want to immediately afterwards._

_...you know what, this is all Kratos' fault. FUCK YOU KRATOS. ...ah crap he's gonna appear and kill me now, isn't he._

I promptly snapped the little brown book shut and proceeded to look around for the aforesaid mercenary in case he somehow happened to be reading over my shoulder from fifty paces. Given that I was sitting on the end of the wide stone aquifer that jutted out over the deep, giant crack running through Asgard, I had nowhere to go in case he suddenly _did_ appear. On the other hand, it would be easy for him to make my murder look like an accident.

Man, ever since Lloyd had had to open his big fat mouth in the Asgard ranch I had Kratos murdering me in my mind _all the time_. It was getting to the point where I couldn't look at either of them without twitching. That just wasn't right.

Shaking my head, I reassured myself that I was alone on the edge here and that nobody was sneaking up to kill me. That was the entire purpose of my sitting up here, anyway. It was private, quiet enough that I would probably hear boots crunching on the stone before anyone got within twenty feet, and the view was spectacular. I pretty much had a three-sixty view of all of Asgard, barring what was right below me anyway. I tried not to look down into the giant crack too much because I had this thing about heights; being that as long as my rump was firmly secure on something solid, I could handle it. The minute my rump was not secure was when I started to get shaky and nauseous.

One would think the wind out here would be strong enough to blow me off, but it actually wasn't. Down in the main part of Asgard was where the wind ran strong enough to rumple hair and ruffle clothing. They said that at the top of the valley, the wind was supposed to scream through the mountain peaks that cradled the town... but down here on my perch, the wind was just a gentle breeze. It sometimes carried snippets of conversation from across the gorge to me, which was cool. I had never really known that was actually possible before. It had distracted me sometimes when I had been writing, but now it just felt like the town was talking to me.

Tucking the notebook into my hip pouch, I carefully plugged the stopper back into my little bottle of ink and wiped the pen on a rag before arranging them all in with the book. Writing with an inkpen had been a little awkward at first, but it wasn't like I'd never handled one of the things before. I was an artist by trade back home, and drawing was my hobby. If it could fit in your hand and made marks, I'd probably attempted to doodle a picture with it by now. The only problem was that the ink tended to smear all over the side of my hand, because I wrote left-handed. That was more what I had the rag for in the first place. I had been sitting on the end of this aquifer for over an hour now writing down everything that had happened to me since I had first plopped down on Sylvaranti soil. Still not sure why I was doing it - having all this information lying around was, as previously discussed, very risky for me. But I felt like I had to do it. Seeing the words written on the page made everything seem... real.

This journey wasn't a dream. These scars arcing over my body really were the results of life-threatening battles that I had _won_. There really was a strange little pulsating black rock stuck into my chest that somehow amplified my abilities. I was in a video game.

_But the longer I spend here, the less it feels like a game... How long do I have until that line between game and reality blurs out of my control?_

The Tower of Salvation. Somehow, I just knew that that would be the turning point for me. Everything until then was predictable... and once Kratos betrayed us, that was it. The others would be massively confused, outraged, desperate, and searching for answers. I would be the only one left with a sane brain who could possibly tell them what had just happened to their quiescent little lives. Could I weave another layer of lies to protect their sanity and convince them this was out of my control? Would I want to? There were things that happened throughout the story that I'd always hated and wanted the power to change... but I was always afraid at the same time. _One ripple in the pond always creates another_. I didn't want to start a domino effect if I couldn't see where it was going.

"Angsting on this aquifer all day isn't going to get anything done," I told the Asgard gorge as I very carefully stood up and stepped back from the edge before brushing off the seat of my pants. The wind took my words away, and I let it ruffle my ponytail for a moment before slowly turning and pacing my way back down the smooth grey stone to the end. It was time for me to head back to the inn and see if I could beg food from the cook for lunch... then see if somebody was available to teach me the proper way to patch a shirt. I was currently wearing one of Raine's spares, which was a bit too large for me but still quite comfortable. At least it fit under my vest without looking terribly unfashionable.

(In case you happened to forget, my previous shirt was quite mutilated and burned from my experiences in the Asgard ranch. Don't ask me how my vest managed to survive with only bloodstains and a mild fraying of the hems.)

As I stepped back onto the solid dirt road on the upper rim of Asgard, I spied a blur of color against all the grey stone from the corner of my eye and turned my head in time to see Sheena and Genis exiting the upper cavern of ruins. "Hey! Hey, Sheena! Genis!" I hollered to get their attention as I began to trot towards them, happy for some company and possibly suckering one of them into mending my shirt for me. Of our entire group, Genis was easily the most domestic one and I had a feeling that Sheena was good with sewing. Or... good with needles, at least.

The two of them stopped and looked up from whatever they were discussing about the cave paintings as I approached. "What are you doing all the way up here?" Genis asked as I drew level with them and we began to amble our way back towards the gravelly slope that led into the bowels of the city.

"Got bored, desired silence," I shrugged, waving my hand briefly in the direction of the aquifer. "Also being stuck in a room with Kratos glaring at you is _awkward_."

Genis and Sheena grimaced for a moment before the ninja started to chortle. "That sounds like such fun. Genis was just telling me about the history of the Sylph in this city," she explained with a small gleam in her eyes. I glanced down towards Genis, who wore a self-satisfied little smirk on his face. Sounded like his sister taught him well indeed. At least it was a good topic to bring up with a summoner and not have her bored to tears for an hour.

"So now what are you guys gonna do?" I asked, fiddling with the hem of my borrowed shirt behind my back. "I dunno if the doctor is still there examining Colette or not... " My two companions looked extremely contemplative for a moment. "And I still have no idea where Lloyd is."

Genis' frown creased a line between his eyes. "Knowing Lloyd, I bet he's doing something stupid."

"You know, I don't think I would blame him in this case." Sheena hm'd thoughtfully before she snapped her fingers and a card appeared out of freakin' nowhere. I must have jumped back a foot before I realized that she wasn't going to try and kill me with it. Darn reflexes. The ninja gave me an odd look and waggled the card in my direction. "I could send Corrine out to find him, if you guys want."

I shrugged, having no idea whether or not Lloyd would appreciate the intrusion on his privacy. Genis fiddled with his kendama a moment before he shrugged too. "It can't hurt, right? We're just making sure he's safe and all."

"Yeah. _Corrine_!" The fox spirit appeared in a poof of smoke in front of his summoner, poofy blue-striped tails wiggling in the air. "Hey, can you find Lloyd for us? We just want to know what he's up to," Sheena explained to the fox.

Corrine tilted his head to the side for a moment, one ear flicking. _"Okay, Sheena. I'll be back!"_ He chirped, turning tail and scampering off into the city with a faint ringing of his bell. I watched the little fox spirit go and wondered to myself just how the hell he managed to pull off all the sneaky things he did while being colored like a handful of Jolly Ranchers and wearing a bell around his neck. At least Sheena had complete faith in his abilities, because she started walking again after a moment. Genis and I caught up with her once we finished boggling at Corrine's vanishing backside, and together we all resumed our trip back to the inn.

"So guys, either of you know how to sew?" I asked after a minute of silent walking. Genis sputtered and Sheena just looked at me.

"You don't know how to sew?" The ninja asked.

I opened my mouth and thought a moment. "Do either of you know how to sew _well_?" I amended my statement. "I know how to _sew_, I've just... never had to patch something before."

"I think the question you want to ask here is 'Will one of you please fix my shirt?'" Genis replied dryly. Sheena laughed as I gave the little mage my biggest, most pleading pair of puppy eyes ever.

"Oh Geniiiiiis please fix my shirt please please _pleeeease_,"

"Wha- Augh! Fine! Get away from me!" Genis yelped, taking cover behind the other side of Sheena before his brain caught up to his mouth and he facepalmed. "You are so annoying sometimes, you know that?"

I grinned widely. "I like to think it's part of my charm."

"You have no charm," the mage muttered. "You're just evil."

Caught between the two of us, Sheena just smiled and chuckled a little as I pestered Genis all the way back to the inn.

[x]

The first thing I noticed when we stepped back into the lobby of the inn was that Kratos was all scrunched up in a corner reading a book and generally trying to be not-noticed. He had red hair and was wearing purple spandex, so I thought he was failing at that spectacularly. As if sensing my thoughts, the mercenary raised his head marginally enough to give me a blood-curdling glare with his garnet eyes. Clearly that was how he was keeping the rabble away from him. Even Chuck Norris wouldn't touch that with a ten-foot pole.

I scrunched around behind Sheena to get further away from the aura of malevolence emanating from the corner. The ninja was much more unfazed, glancing over to the door of our room before looking back to Kratos. "Did the doctor leave yet?"

A grunt was all we got from him. That could have meant anything from "Yes, he did" all the way to "No, I killed him and dumped his body out back". Genis and I looked warily at each other for a moment until the door to our room suddenly clicked open and the Professor stepped out.

"Raine!" Genis launched himself at his sister because she was presumably not about to split his head open with a book. "Did the doctor leave? How's Colette?"

"Yes, he left," Raine sighed, placing a hand on Genis' head to make him stop with the bouncing like a two-year-old. "And Colette is fine. She's no worse, at least."

"But that don't mean she's better, right?" I asked from around Sheena.

"_Doesn't_," Raine corrected with a teacherly scold. "And I don't know that. Colette will recover at her own pace, and in the meantime we are just going to have to wait." This last part she seemed to direct particularly at Kratos in the corner, who scowled and hunched down further behind his book. I suddenly began to realize why he was even out here in the first place instead of hovering over Colette's bedside like a rabid dog. That was probably one altercation I wouldn't have minded missing. "Does anyone know where Lloyd is?" Raine went on after a moment of looking over our little group and realizing we were minus one swordsman.

Sheena, Genis, and I collectively looked at each other and shrugged. "We've got Corrine on it," Sheena told the Professor. That was perhaps a bad thing to mention, given the way Raine's eyes suddenly lit up with interest.

"By the way Sheena, I've been meaning to ask about your Summon Spirit," she started with a remarkably smooth, controlled tone as she slipped an arm around Sheena's shoulders and steered her towards the direction of the kitchen. "Why don't we get some lunch and you can tell me more about Corrine?"

"Uh - " And then Sheena was abducted without being able to resist. I winced at how smoothly that all went off.

"Genis, your sister is _lethal_."

"She's a goner," the mage agreed before he turned and headed off towards our room. "Now c'mon and find me this shirt I'm supposed to be fixing."

".. oh, right. Shirt!" I scrambled after Genis into the room and quietly meandered my way over towards my pack in the dim light. Raine had left all the shades drawn so Colette could get some peaceful sleep or rest or what the hell ever it was that angels got, which was good for her but made finding stuff in here kinda sucky. I managed to locate my pack after some fumbling around and started digging into it to find the remains of my shirt. Meanwhile, Genis lit a candle in the background and located the little sewing kit he had in his own pack.

"Where did you get that?" I asked curiously as my fingers ran over something shredded and burnt. That would be my shirt, then; which I pulled out and shook off a little to get the wrinkles out. It didn't help much, and charred flakes of something suspicious floated off the sleeves onto the ground.

Genis shrugged as he reached to take the garment from me. "Raine. It was a present." Running the poor abused cloth through his fingers a few times, the mage squinted at it in the candlelight before a deep frown creased his features. "Are you sure this can even be _fixed_? Look at this!" He scrubbed his fingers over one of the charred sleeves and I swear about half the cloth disintegrated right there in his hand to drift down to the floor as little dusty flakes.

"Dude, hey, don't go destroying it more than it already is!" I squawked.

Genis snorted. "Are you kidding me? These are thoroughly ruined." He shook bits of ash residue off his fingers as more of the sleeves crumbled into dust. "That rip on the shoulder I could fix, sure; but this burn on the front and these sleeves are all _way_ out of my skill range." Shaking his head, the mage thrust the remains of the garment back at me and dusted his clothes off. "Face it, you need a new shirt."

I looked mournfully down at the tattered shirt in my hands and mentally cursed myself for not waiting to spend my gald until I was certain that I wouldn't need it for other, more important things than that little book. This thing hadn't even lasted that long, either, and I'd first gotten it here... in Asgard. With Kratos. Who had a good memory. My brain pinged just a little before I dashed to the door all of a sudden. Genis probably thought the loss of my shirt had driven me insane.

I leaned around the edge of the door to yell into the lobby. "Hey Kratos!"

All I got was cold, sudden-death silence.

"We got my shirt from that lady up the road, right? Didn't she swear all her stuff was supposed to last at least half a year?"

More cold, I-hate-you-go-away silence.

"Because I'm gonna swear it has not been half a year and this thing is pretty damn ruined!" I waved the tattered remains of my shirt around like a flag, letting ash particles drift through the air.

Then I nearly got brained in the face by a tiny sack of gald. Luckily I ducked; and it soared overhead to splat somewhere near Genis, who almost fell off his stool with a girly squeak. "Thanks Kratos!" I yelled back, and then retreated back into the relative safety of the room. "Okay, where'd it land?"

"What in the Goddess' name was _that_?" Genis squeaked. I was already down on my hands and knees and groping the floorboards to find that little cloth sack of wonderful jingly stuff. The candlelight provided just enough illumination for me to eventually find it under the edge of one of the beds.

"That was Kratos paying me to shut up!" I chirped cheerfully, sitting up and snuggling the little money bag to my face. "I didn't even know I could do that safely."

"Probably because the innkeeper would be witness to your murder," Genis input dryly as he mended a little rip in one of his spare undershirts. "I wouldn't try and pull that off twice if I were you."

"Hmm. Good point." Tying the pouch onto my belt, I stood up and brushed dirt from the floor off my pants. "Well, I guess I'm gonna go shirt-shopping now and see if I can't get that lady to give me a really good price reduction. Y'wanna come?" I asked, looking over at Genis. The mage didn't answer right away, taking a moment to tie off the stitch he was working on and then biting off the remaining thread.

"Nah. I think I'll stay here and keep an eye on Colette." Genis looked sadly over at the bed in the darkest corner of the room, where Colette really wasn't much more than a lump under the covers. The whole scene kind of reminded me of Sleeping Beauty in the tower, in a way. "I've still got work to do, and I don't like leaving her alone with Kratos."

I mentally bit my tongue to keep myself from saying something abhorrent to the plot. "Alright. I don't think I'll be gone too long... who knows, maybe I'll run into Lloyd."

Genis snorted as he pulled out the next item on his mending list and arranged it neatly across his lap. I couldn't help but notice that it looked like a pair of boxer shorts. "If you do, tell him he's an idiot."

"'From Genis, with love.' Got it," I replied with a snicker, and then fled the room before the mage could hurl some pins at me.

[x]

The shopkeeper up the road did not believe my tales of shirt-destruction-woe until I brandished the remains of it in her face and shook them vigorously. Luckily it still had a tag stuck in the back, which bore the mark of her shop; which proved I didn't just set some random shirt on fire in order to get a good deal. After taking the tattered remains into her hands and clucking her tongue over them, the shopkeeper directed me towards what was apparently the 'exchange rack' at the back. "Whatever y'want, quarter-price. I still stand by my work," she said firmly as she reached under the counter and pulled out a sewing kit. "I'll even mend the hem of your vest while you're here, free of charge."

I stood there for a moment and looked curiously down at my vest before I remembered that oh right, I bought this here too. Whups! "That'd be great," I said, shrugging off the garment and handing it over to the shopkeeper. She immediately spread it neatly out on the counter in front of her and began threading a needle. Leaving her to her work, I turned and dove into the exchange rack to find myself a new shirt with the proper fit. As I sorted through the different colors, I kept in mind what clothes I already had (brown vest, dark blue pants) and the kind of terrain we were going to do a lot of crossing through before splatting in Tethe'alla (grasslands and forest, mostly). I came to the conclusion that I wanted a green shirt for best camouflage, and... lo and behold, there was one smushed at the far end of the rack. I pulled it out and smoothed out the wrinkles, looking it over thoughtfully. It was a nice, grass-green sort of shade with a button-up front. Figuring what the hell, I ducked behind a nearby screen to change.

So that was how I ended up with a nice, cheap new shirt and an expertly-mended vest. I felt much better after that as I handed over a few gald coins to the lady when a thought struck me. "Hey, you don't happen to sell gloves, do you? Or a kind of... uh, undershirt protection?" That probably wasn't the best phrasing, but I didn't know how else to say it.

The shopkeeper tilted her head to the side in confusion for a moment, pursing her lips before she realized what I probably meant. "Y'mean like armor? Nah. Y'want the armory up the gorge for that."

"Oh, huh. Okay. Thanks!" Trotting out of the shop, I looked up towards the upper rim of Asgard while lightly jingling the gald purse in my hand, weighing the contents. I had quite a bit left, and I had decided that I really wanted some form of extra protection from now on. I knew that the others all wore some form of tough leather underneath their clothes, but I didn't have that. I also wanted a good pair of gloves for the next time I had to punch someone in the face, because I didn't want to have to worry about more bone splinters in my hands. Deciding I probably had enough gald left to at least get some gloves, I tucked it back away inside my vest and set my course for the upper rim.

It took me maybe ten minutes to hike all the way up there, mostly because the Asgard roads are very steep and made of gravel. I'd also already meandered up this way once today, and I hadn't even been in a hurry back then. I wasn't really in a hurry _now_, but I really wanted to check the armory out and that was making my pace a little faster than usual. At least the only things I really had to duck around were tourists out on a pilgrimage and wanting to see the caves. Come to think of it, I'd never even stuck my head in there yet... But I wasn't about to do that now, either. What was I going to learn from them that I didn't already know? It was kind of pointless.

I paused once I reached the top of the gorge, looking in the direction of my friend the stone aquifer and the giant chasm beyond before striding off towards the hanging sign I could see with a shield depicted on it. That always meant an armory in my book.

And my book was apparently written by a very good author. A little bell dinged when I stuck my head in the door, taking in the smells of oil and leather before I cautiously stepped all the way inside and strolled up to the counter. The well-muscled man behind it was polishing some sort of shield and didn't even look at me right away. Casting my glance around the walls to the different kinds of armor hanging there, I waited for him to get done and notice me. Yes, I'm pretty terrible at talking to intimidating-looking strangers. Eventually satisfied with his work, the man behind the counter laid the shield down on the wood and finally seemed to realize I was there. I mentally swallowed irritation as he looked me up and down, then picked up another shield. "'s no place for kids," he said, clearly having already written me off.

I could sort of see where he was coming from: I was a skinny girl just over five feet in height in patched and slightly-bloody clothes with a little dagger strapped on my hip. Still, I was a customer and he should be paying attention to me because I was gonna be supplying money to his business, dammit. "Hey you," I snapped, my temper rising to the surface. "I just helped attack and blow up a human ranch less than twenty-four hours ago. I got shot, I was stabbed, and I had a fuckin' robot blow up in my face; now _sell me some fuckin' armor._"

I'm not sure if it was the fact that I was actually yelling or that I was beginning to swear heavily that got his attention. Probably the latter, since I had yet to hear a girl on Sylvarant that could lay it out like me.

The man slowly looked up from the new shield he was polishing, once more looking me over like he was trying to decide whether or not I was lying. I really didn't want to be looked at like a piece of meat a second time, though. "What, you want proof? I've got scars all over my arms from almost being killed by a giant bird guardian! Lookit 'em!" I hollered, wrenching up one of my sleeves to display the crisscross of scars lancing across my arm. "I've got scars on my face from being slapped across your damn dais by that demon! I've got a huge scar on my side from being impaled by a sword! I have electrical burns all across my chest from Raybits! I am turning into a mass of scar tissue here and I do not want _another single fucking one_."

The shopkeeper was still just blankly looking at me as I flew further into my homicidal rage. Growling now, I reached for the gald purse and pulled it out. "I have lots of money and none of it is going to _you_ if I don't start getting some good service around here."

The man set down his work. "Welcome to the _Chains of Wind_. How can I help you?"

I walked out of there half an hour later and feeling considerably less pissy. Set snugly on my arms was a brand new pair of elbow-length brown leather gloves. Running up the middle of both of them from knuckles to elbow was a span of thicker, harder leather roughly three inches wide. It was supposed to dull impacts if I had to guard myself with my arms, and hopefully deflect blades if I managed to make them glance off at an angle. There was also a thin, rectangular metal plate about two inches long and an inch wide set over the backs of my hands, starting at the knuckles. That was my protection for whenever I had to punch someone again. At least the metal would be easier to clean blood off of than my skin.

The last bonus was underneath my shirt: a lightweight leather vest reinforced with small sections of metal. It wasn't exactly a traditional suit of armor and it only covered my torso, but I wasn't complaining. As long as it protected my vitals, I could probably spare an arm... or leg... or hopefully Raine would be able to save me in that kind of circumstance. My new pieces of equipment added an extra ten pounds or so to my weight, and as I walked back down the slope towards the inn I was mostly trying to get adjusted to the sudden difference. I was really hoping I would run into Lloyd skulking around somewhere so I could convince him to return to the others, although I had a feeling he was still greatly irritated at me. I couldn't really blame him for that, though. I know that I would be positively _raging_ if one of my friends knew and was letting my best friend willingly screw themself over. It wasn't like I had a choice in keeping that information private, though. Being murdered by Kratos was something I was trying to avoid at all costs.

As I passed by the barred stairwell leading up towards the Asgard dais, the ever-present wind chose that moment to bring a rasping of metal to my ears. Halting, I moved towards the side of the road to avoid being in anyone's way and quirked my head up into the stair passage. The wind whistled strongly down this natural corridor and when I tilted my head just right, the sound of a blade sang into my brain. Curious now, I glanced around to make sure no passing tourists had noticed me poking around a restricted area before I ducked into the passage and trotted up the dozen feet or so to the gate. It was locked, of course; probably so no one could disturb the ruin when a tour wasn't in progress. However, if the wind wasn't lying to me, then there was a trespasser lurking up there.

I eyed the lock speculatively. I had no idea as to the extent of Lloyd's skill with these things, but according to the game he was a damn wizard at getting into whatever he wanted to be getting into. For now I was assuming that it _might_ be Lloyd up there, since by entering a locked area he had effectively isolated himself from everyone and everything he didn't want to deal with. It sounded like a good explanation for why the hell nobody'd been able to find him since breakfast. Carefully poking at the lock a few times with my hand, I decided that I wasn't going to be able to get in that way. My eyes then proceeded to roam over the rest of the gate; deciding that the bars were too close together to slip through and way too high for me to jump or climb without help. The next thing my gaze naturally rested on were the two rock walls encasing the stairwell up to the dais. They weren't exactly smooth, and there were crags jutting out of them. _I wonder_, I mused, mentally tracing a path from crag to crag as my eyes traveled up to the wall. _Can I jump my way up using those?_

It didn't seem like an impossible task, for some reason. After all, I had once jumped up onto a tree branch ten feet off the ground without realizing it while spar-running from Kratos. Lloyd could jump up and down ridiculous cliffs with his exsphere... and I had my own substitute, which was working plenty properly. The Demon's heart thudded affirmation of this on my chest, sending a tickle running through my body. Even though I hated heights -

_Don't think about the height. You're just climbing a giant fence and it won't take any time at all. Let's go!_

Suddenly, I was moving. It came so naturally, the way I crouched and sprang towards the first crag. My head turned, the mental path fixed in my mind as my boots thudded and kicked off the rocky surface to propel me to the next ledge. I barely even felt the recoil of it as I hit my second ledge and bounded towards the third. My body felt like one of Colette's feathers: light and energized; as I tapped onto the third crag and promptly jumped off again. My body arced in the air as I soared over the fence, automatically doing a backflip to ensure I would land feet first as I descended to the ground. My boots hit the dirt and suddenly I was a slave to the laws of gravity again, especially when the new weight of my armored vest caught up to me and slammed directly down into my shins. I yelped, stumbled, and fell over backwards to land hard on my back.

Time either stopped, or suddenly began to flow again. I wasn't sure which as I stared up at the cloudy sky and tried to figure out what had just happened. Like the time I'd jumped into the tree, my reaction was automatic and almost didn't feel entirely like my own. It was like I was a slave to the black stone on my chest, even though it was supposed to be a slave to me. The Demon's heart was thumping slower now, in a more relaxed manner than before I was psyching myself up to jump up the rock wall. Slowly sitting up and shaking some dirt out of my hair, I pondered that observation for a moment. Perhaps the heart reacted more strongly in the presence of what Lloyd and Kratos would call 'battle spirit' - or when my adrenaline was rushing like a river. It would explain some of my more incredible feats as of late, like the sudden spurts of gymnastics at the Asgard ranch and Beasting that one guard in the face. Speaking of Beast...

"Okay self, still gotta find Lloyd," I muttered, reaching for the wall and using it as a crutch when I tried to stand. My body definitely felt all the extra weight I was carrying, as well as my poor shellshocked and shaking shins. My legs both ached and trembled hard when I was finally upright, and I looked towards all those long, steep Asgard stairs. "...seriously, what is it with all the architecture around here and _stairs_?"

Needless to say, the climb sucked. A lot. I was sweating something disgusting and inwardly swearing by the time I staggered my way up to the top and emerged onto flat, grassy ground. The wind up here slapped me in the face and dried all that sweat in half a second, leaving a massive cold chill to sweep through my body before I adjusted. I was so going to need another bath after this. "Alrighty, where's the boy in obnoxious red," I muttered, looking up at the stone dais for a moment and not seeing Lloyd dancing across the top of it or whatever. At least he had the better sense to not be training on the ruin, because Raine would cremate him if she found out. After looking to my immediate left and right, I figured that Lloyd must be somewhere behind the dais and proceeded to trudge off around the grey stone block. The Asgard ruin was set near the beginning of a small valley cupped by the mountains, and there was an expanse of grass that unfolded behind it. Plenty of room for someone angsting to go wild.

As I walked around the side of the ruin, a faint jingling caught my attention and made me look up. There on the top of one of the four stone spires sat Corrine. The fox spirit was looking down into the valley, and it didn't seem like he'd noticed me yet. I followed his gaze down into the grass, and finally located Lloyd. He was a furiously slashing blur of red, his blades ringing off of the occasional rock he was using for target practice. I winced slightly; Kratos would flay him alive if he knew how Lloyd was abusing his swords. "Corrine," I called softly to the fox summon. His ears pricked and swiveled before he looked down and saw me, his striped tails giving a faint swish. "Can you go tell Sheena I found Lloyd, and that he's okay? I'll bring him back, somehow."

_"Okay,"_ Corrine agreed, leaping from his perch to the dais and then dashing out of sight. I listened to his bell jingling until I couldn't hear it anymore, and then I swallowed the lump in my throat before heading down into the valley towards Lloyd.

He didn't seem to notice me approaching at all. Granted, I was taking care to step softly through the grass, because I didn't want him catching sight of me and then taking off like a scared rabbit. I managed to get within a few feet of him in this manner, and then just waited patiently until he seemed to take a break from maiming a boulder. "Lloyd," I said. I don't know why I didn't expect him to whip around and point his swords at me like he did. I would've done the same thing.

His garnet eyes, so like Kratos', glinted coldly for a moment before he seemed to relax his posture and lower his swords. "Oh. It's just you," Lloyd grumbled, turning away and kicking at his rock target with a foot. "What do you want?"

"Kratos will kill you if he finds out what you've been doing to your swords," I pointed out, trying to get past the hostility and shift the topic to more neutral ground. Lloyd snorted, tilting the edge of one blade so I could actually see it. The metal was completely unmarred, save a little scuffing.

"I've been using the flats, not the blades."

"...oh." Well chalk one up to Lloyd actually being smart, then. "When are you going to come back? Everybody's worrying about you."

The brunette sighed and rolled his shoulders, choosing to crack a joint or two in lieu of a response. I found myself growing steadily irritated again at having something held over my head that I had virtually no control over. In response to my rising tension, my Demon's heart began to thump like crazy. I decided that perhaps in this instance, there was nothing wrong with being a little drastic to get a point across.

"Lloyd _Irving_!" _WHUD_. The urge to say 'Aurion' instead was there as I slammed the flat of my palm into his back, releasing a pile of pent-up frustration along with it. Lloyd was caught completely unaware and sent sprawling face-first into his previous rock target. I waited as he got his wits back together and flipped himself over, reaching for one of the swords he'd dropped along the way.

"What the hell was _that_ for?" Lloyd snapped as he pushed himself upright. I didn't wait for him to get his center of balance back and rushed him again, slamming my palm dead-center into his ribcage and releasing another blast of tension. The brunette actually squeaked as the blow knocked him clear over the rock and left him tumbling on the grass a ways. Climbing to stand on top of the rock, I watched Lloyd cough and massage his chest as he pushed himself upright and looked around for his swords again. One was lying near the base of the rock, and the other was somewhere in the grass. "Seriously, what the hell are you doing?" Lloyd wheezed, picking up his closest sword before ambling warily towards the rock to retrieve the other one, keeping his eyes fixed on me just in case I attempted to smack him somewhere again.

"What am I doing?" I asked icily as Lloyd picked up his other sword and hefted both cautiously. "What do you _think_ I'm doing? I'm mad, Lloyd. So very, _very _mad. And instead of taking out my anger on some poor innocent rocks, I'm going for the source of my problems instead - _you!_" He barely managed to get his blades up in a guarding position over his head before I drew my dagger and jumped, striking down with another energy blast. Lloyd grunted and locked his knees to avoid buckling as my hydra dagger rang against his swords with an almost bell-like note. Pushing off the point of contact, I backflipped forward and landed on the grass much less gracefully than normal; my legs trembling a little as the weight of my vest caught up to me. Maybe choosing to fight Lloyd while wearing new equipment wasn't the _best_ idea I'd ever had. At least I was getting some combat practice in with it, and I knew Lloyd wasn't going to kill me. On purpose, anyway.

WHAM. "And why are you mad at _me?_" Lloyd hollered as he slammed his shoulder into my back. I couldn't answer while tumbling through the field and trying not to eat grass along the way. At least I hadn't dropped my hydra dagger in the process. I ended up on my back, and having a great upside-down view of the twin swordsman rushing me.

"Because you're making my life a lot harder than it _needs to be!"_ My legs whipped up and caught Lloyd in the gut, not hard enough to stagger him but enough to give him pause so I could roll over and get out of the way as his swords descended. _Barely been wearing this shirt an hour and it already looks like a train wreck, _I reflected dryly as I lunged up from the ground and slammed the hilt of my dagger forward towards Lloyd's ribs. Either I was getting tired or he was getting faster; because he slid sideways out of the way, grabbed my arm, and used my momentum to hurl me forwards across the grass again. I squeaked and landed less-than-gracefully in a roll across the ground, losing my dagger somewhere along the way in favor of covering my head with my arms. It wasn't like Raine was out there to heal my brain trauma if I happened to bash against a rock.

Instead of getting up, I opted to lay there on the ground in a curled-up ball and listened to Lloyd's boots shuffling through the grass towards my direction. Eventually a shadow cast itself over the side of my face, and a boot poked me in the ribs. "You're still alive, right?" Lloyd asked.

"Why yes, thank you for caring," I mumbled as I slowly uncovered my head and rolled over onto my back to look up. Lloyd warily raised his swords to block his midsection, like I was about to swing my legs up and kick him again. "Relax, Lloyd. I'm totally drained now." I really was, too. My legs throbbed, along with my back and my chest. It was nice to know I was such a wuss that I couldn't even manage an extra ten pounds of weight. "I'm still pissed at you though."

"Me too," Lloyd grumbled, sheathing his swords before sitting down on the grass next to me and offering up my hydra dagger, hilt-first. "You dropped this."

"I know." I took it and made sure there wasn't any grass or dirt sticking on the blade before I stuck it back on my belt and smothered a groan. I was going to have so much cleaning up to do later.

We stayed like that for a few minutes in pretty much total silence, aside from the wind whistling over the grass. I was staring up at the clouds and wondering what the cook was making for dinner when Lloyd finally spoke up. "What did you mean, 'making your life harder'?"

I made a face. "Exactly what it sounds like. You opened your big fat mouth, and now everyone secretly hates me. Why can't you just trust that I know what I'm doing and let it go?" Especially since I actually had very little idea what I was doing. I wasn't going to tell him that, though.

"You mean it's okay to let Colette suffer like that? You're crazy! I can't believe you think that's actually the right thing to do." Lloyd pounded his fist against his knee. "There has to be some way we can help her. I don't believe Kratos when he says all we have to do is ask Remiel for a solution." I perked up eversoslightly at the mention of Kratos and Remiel. No wonder Kratos kicked Lloyd out of the inn. Lloyd turned his head sideways and gave me the most intense look I had ever seen. "Do you know a way to help Colette? Don't lie to me."

_Well sure Lloyd. Steal a Rheaird and hop on over to Tethe'alla, they'll fix you right up_. I swallowed a bit. Here came the plot, marching over my dead body.

"I... know of a way to help Colette." It was amazing how much Lloyd brightened up at that. Too bad I was about to temporarily crush his hopes and dreams. "Unfortunately, it's not possible right now."

"What do you mean, _it's not possible_?"

I pushed myself up onto my elbows and gave him my best stern look. "I mean it's not possible right now, Lloyd. A cure for Colette requires materials that... well, they can't be obtained on this earth."

You could practically see Lloyd's brain come crashing back down to reality as his face fell into a look of disbelief. "Are you serious?"

Balancing as best I could on one elbow, I reached up with my other hand to flick Lloyd in the nose. "Hey, I promised not to lie and you asked; so I told you. A cure can't be done right now. Please quit whining at me because there's _nothing I can do_."

The swordsman rubbed his nose and grumbled for a minute as I flopped back down onto the ground because my arms were getting tired. "...wait a minute. You said 'right now'," Lloyd realized after a minute. I mentally thwacked myself in the head. "Does that mean we'll be able to help her in the future?"

_...okay, how much of the plot do I want to spoil for Mister Brilliant here?_ Sighing, I shoved myself into an upright sitting position and scooted around to face Lloyd. "Okay buster, look. You have to understand that right now, I _can't_ tell you anything unless it deals with the immediate future. _However_," I added as Lloyd's mouth opened in protest. "I'll make you a promise."

Lloyd blinked. "...a promise?"

"Yes." I stuck my right hand up into the air, attempting my best recollection of the Boy Scout symbol. "I'm not gonna lie: _horrible_ things are going to happen. You will wonder, more than once, what exactly we are trying to accomplish here. _But_, I promise you, everything will turn out for the best in the end. You just have to believe," I added as the brunette made a very disbelieving sort of face. "It'll be okay."

Lloyd stared at me like he was trying to decide how much of my babble he really wanted to believe. I kept his gaze, trying to look confident in the things I was saying because it was true, technically. We would be able to cure Colette, we'd be able to fix the eventual world problems, and everybody would be as happy as they wanted to be. I unfortunately couldn't tell him that we'd be betrayed several times along the way, become enemies of pretty much half the world, have heaven itself put out a warrant for us, and generally go through lots of horrible scenarios that might or might not involve blood. I tried not to flinch at that thought because my brain had automatically jumped to the two battles with Kratos in the Tower of Salvation. _Noooo brain, don't think about that. If you do you'll never be able to sleep at night ever again._

"... I don't know if I can believe you right now."

I should have expected that, but damn it still hurt. Arrow right to my freaking heart, Lloyd. I tried to hide how obviously crushed I was at the moment, sighing a little instead and shrugging my shoulders. "Well, that's your choice. Whether or not you believe me right now, that's still my promise and I'm holding to it." Pushing myself up off the grass, I brushed off my pants and the back of my vest before shaking some greenery out of my ponytail. "And now, you've officially been absent from town for six hours. Please come back to the inn with me, Lloyd? The doctor came and saw Colette, and she's... well, she's not worse at least. I'm sure she'd feel better if she knew you were nearby."

The brunette huffed and fidgeted on the grass a little before he looked to the sky, seemingly using some method unknown to me to tell time with the clouds. "Well, alright. It's almost dinnertime," he mumbled, ignoring my offered hand in favor of pushing himself up from the ground on his own and shaking out his ribbons. "Raine isn't cooking, right?"

"No. The inn has a hired cook for that." I fell quietly in step behind Lloyd as the swordsman led the way back up the hill towards the stone dais. I didn't get another word out of him until we were going back to descending the wretched five million stairs, which definitely was not doing my shins any favors. I hadn't been expecting Lloyd to stop at the gate for some reason, so of course I walked right into his back and stumbled backwards. "What're you doin', man?" I whined, wondering what the holdup was.

Lloyd turned a little and looked at me, enough that I could see his arms poking through the bars in the gate and he was wiggling a little metal stick into the lock there. _Oh right. The gate was locked. I don't know why I thought he was going to jump it like I did._

"How did you get through this gate? I locked it," the brunette asked quietly. As if to punctuate his point, the lock on the gate gave a little 'click!' and snapped open. I cautiously stepped through after Lloyd and looked up at the rock walls while he reset the lock behind us.

"Um. I jumped over it," I admitted, gesturing a little to the crags around the gate. "I was kind of a little desperate to get in."

"You... jumped it." Lloyd followed my gaze, letting his eyes roam around the rock ledges before they came back down to settle on my chest and the dark stone there. "Hunh."

I unconsciously covered my chest with my hand, even though the swordsman had already turned away and was stalking down the street back in the direction of the inn. For some reason, I felt... odd. Was I afraid of him? Was I mad at him? What was so weird about jumping over a thirty-foot fence? I mean, my Demon's heart was technically my exsphere, it was meant to make me do stuff like that. I was allowed to do cool things in a video game too, damn it. Dropping my hand, I balled my fists and tromped back to the inn after Lloyd. I had been feeling better after my outburst, but now I was feeling irritated again. Something told me this was going to be a constant problem.

[x]

Pretty much nobody noticed me when we got back to the inn. Everybody immediately mobbed Lloyd, hugging him and scolding him for staying out so long and asking where he'd been and why he was mysteriously covered with grass stains...

I thought I'd managed to slip back into our room unseen. Halfway to where my bag was located, I became aware of evil eyes on my person and promptly reached for my dagger while squinting around in the dim light for the source. Said source became evident when he popped a small fireball into existence in the palm of his hand, the firelight making his red eyes glint. I swallowed a little, wondering if I was about to get shanked. "Kratos. What do you - oh. Here, there's some left." I pulled the little gald purse he'd given me out of my vest and tossed it in his general direction. The mercenary easily caught it with his other hand and stowed it away. I cautiously leaned against the edge of a bed, wondering when he was going to put that darn fireball out and just light a candle instead like a normal person.

"What did you tell Lloyd?"

_Ahaha, like I'm going to tell you_. "About what? Colette?" I asked, looking in the direction of the unconscious angel. I wasn't sure how much her brain could still process while she was in that state. Probably not enough, if Kratos wanted to talk about her right next to her. Judging from the look Kratos was giving _me_, I could stop playing dumb any time now. "That there's nothing we can do for her. Also, if he could kindly stop moping around."

The mercenary's eyes narrowed slightly. "Is that the truth?"

I found myself taken aback. _What? Why is he asking me this? Doesn't he know? Is __**he**__ asking me if there's a way to save __**Colette**__?_ "I... don't understand what you're asking, Kratos."

Kratos grunted and closed his fist, effectively snuffing the flame in his palm. I gulped and stood there in a cold sweat, clutching the edge of the bed until I saw the door open and a shadow passed through it before it closed. _And Kratos has left the room. Great_. It took some effort to make my shaking fingers unclench from the wood before I slowly slid down to the floor, resting my back against the bed and putting my arms around my sore legs.

I didn't understand today. It was just _weird_. And Lloyd hated me still and Kratos was creeping me the hell out. The only thing that could make today better would be if Colette actually managed to wake up.

_...wait a second I think Colette is waking up_. The tiny noises I was hearing was enough to make me struggle to my feet and limp over to Colette's bed. "Colette?" I couldn't see a damn thing in here because it was dark, so I almost went through the ceiling when I felt weak fingers grasp my sleeve. _Oh my shit she's awake. I AM MADE OF MAGIC._ "Colette!" I hissed gleefully, carefully reaching down towards her hand and almost recoiling with a yelp when I felt her bone-cold fingers on mine. Good gravy but her skin was freezing. "Are, um... y'know, you okay?"

"I am... better, yes." The angel's voice was barely above a whisper, but it seemed much louder in the silence of the room. "Where is... everyone? Why is it... so dark?"

"They're down eating dinner," I mumbled, thinking that I should be down there eating too but I didn't want to spoil the happy atmosphere Lloyd's arrival had provided. "And it's dark 'cuz Raine pulled all the shades to make sure you could rest okay. Hey, should I get you a gel or something to eat while I get the Professor? You still sound pretty weak."

"No, I'm okay." Colette's cold fingers squeezed my hand. "You sound sad. How are you doing? Are... are they all mad at you?"

"Only the one that matters," I grumbled, thinking of my day that had started okay and spiraled down into lousy. "I'll deal with it. Don't worry about me, Colette." Before the angel could either apologize or try and make me discuss further issues, I gently shook my hand free of hers and stumbled backwards until I banged my legs into another bed. "Look, I'm gonna go get the Professor and all that because everyone's been waiting all day to see how you are. I'll be right back, okay?" Without waiting for her response I flailed out of the room and into the lobby, leaving the door open behind me before taking a sharp turn into another hallway and running for the dining room.

"Guys! GUYS! COLETTE'S UP!"

[x]

_Clearly Colette's awakening was the Sylvaranti equivalent of the Second Coming. I have never seen people drop their forks so fast and motor back to check on her. I took that opportunity to actually get some food, since I more or less knew the conversation they were going to have up in there. It basically amounted to 'where do we go next'._

_I didn't know I was actually needed for that until Sheena came down to drag me back up there with my face stuffed full of chuck roast. Embarrassing? A TINY BIT. To make a long story short, we're going to Palmacosta. And we're walking a long, long way to Palmacosta. The reason for that, as I had to explain, is that there's a perverted old coot charging a literal small fortune for a road pass over Hakonesia Peak that could make our trip so much faster. Kratos, Sheena, Lloyd, and I were all for just sneaking up there and assassinating him. Colette and Raine managed to talk us out of it._

_Our trip is going to take us across pretty much an ENTIRE CONTINENT. We're passing from Asgard to Lake Umacy, Luin's ruins, Hima, and finally a long, bare stretch of continent to reach Izoold on the other side. I swear, if there wasn't even that tiny little bridge there we would be pretty much fucked. But then again, that means the Symphonia 'hard path' wouldn't even exist in the first place. At least we get to take Sheena with us to Palmacosta. That's going to be fun, hahahnot. Once we get to Palmacosta, I'm going to have to figure out a way to keep us from doing that stupid statue-book-pervert sidequest, because that seriously has no point now that I'm here. We just need to hit up Thoda for the water seal, and Lloyd won't have to worry about almost being scalded to death. I will consider this a win-win scenario for all involved as long as no one tells Raine that mister pervert up at Hakonesia has a rare book that SHE SIMPLY MUST READ BECAUSE IT'S DAMN OLD. She's not even done with Boltzman's book yet._

_Speaking of that... welp, I don't want to fight Undine. It'll save us time with back to back fights, but still. Ew. I don't think we even have to really heal the dude, but we should because the unicorn thing is somewhat important I think. I don't even remember anymore. I think that may be a bad thing._

_Kratos thinks that, provided we don't run into too many obstacles, our trip should conservatively take around a week of constant walking. I was tempted to make some sort of a joke about Noishe pulling a sled so he could drag us while we sleep, but I didn't because I think Kratos might actually go through with that; Noishe's discomfort or no. That's one fight I both do and don't want to see. It'd be funny as hell, but... still. Lloyd would be mad. I'm not sure that's a fight I want to see._

_Well, gotta finish packing and get ready to move out the minute Kratos thinks he spies sunlight tomorrow. Why do I have the feeling this march is going to suck a lot?_

[x]

_"Lloyd tells me you jumped over the entrance gate to the Asgard ruin today."_

_"...what the hell is so wrong with that, seriously? I'm wearing a frigging exsphere-THING, I'm allowed to do stuff like that!"_

_"The Chosen has mentioned to me in passing that you were shot in the chest by a Raybit at the Asgard ranch."_

_"What's your problem with that; I failed at dodging and therefore I suck?"_

_"The Raybits Kvar used were powered by and attack with blasts of pure lightning mana."_

_"... Kratos, I really think you lost me before you had me. Is this some roundabout way of telling me I need more training?"_

_"... you need to be more careful in the future."_

_"So you're telling me that I suck. I KNEW IT."_


End file.
